The news & observer., 1905-12-12
THE DUTY OF AMERICA TO IT'S
FORESTS.

sage, with the question of the Appala-
chan Forest Reserve. those who
heard hfs speech in Raleigh will re-
member the earnestness with which
he advocated the measure pending
before Congress and his significant
statement that if the people of the
sections concerned would agitate in
behalf of the measure they could
count on his help. Indeed the Presi-
dent particularly emphasized the fact
that the fate of forest preservation
depended largely upon the degree in
themselves in urging the passage of
the bill by the Congress. Although
North Carolina has not been back
ward to the extent intimated by the
President, having urged the former
measure vigorously and sent COM
mttees to Washington in its behalf,
it is the duty of the people of the
State to accept the hint dropped by
Mr.. Roosevelt in his Raleigh speech
in good faith and start an agitation
only when the bill becomes a law. no
matter how many sessions of Con-
gress may intervene.
The principle on which the need of
great reserve of the forests on the
continental watersheds is based, is so
comprehensive that it is not generally
realized, solely on account of its large
lit, e,Ia "
and the forests are still big despite
the wanton work of destruction which
is slowly, but surely eating them away.
Because the full significance of the
conditions of a denuded watershed
are not yet apparent is for that rea-
son "A spur to hasten a legislation
which can now be made preventive,
instead of awaiting the ultimate and
necessarily slow and inadequate
remedial legislation which comes after
the harm has been fully compassed.
To get a grasp of the subject af-
ford'ng empirical proof of the vital
Importance of the bill. one only has
to read the report of the Committee
on Forestry made in 1902, when the
Appalachian Bill was pending. show
ing as it does the history of forest
denudation in other countries, the
harm wrought thereby and the per-
sistent if almost hopeless efforts of
foreign governments to repair the
havoc permitted in more ignorant
times.
In Europe some of the most desc
late sections, barren and unpopulated,
We're once the garden spots of the
earth. Their decadence may be
traced directly to the destructions of
the forests. The entire country from
the straights of Gibraltar to the Nile
was in the highest state of cultivation
and civilization. Now it is either
depopulated or given up to the desert.
Tripoii was once a magnificent region
supporting a population as large as
that of the State of New York. Now
there are but handful of inhabi-
tants and a wasted and unfruitful
country. In France and Italy the
denudation of the Alps has caused the
and Italian governments are expend-
ing millions of dollars in a hope of
sometime building up what will ine-
vitably be an inferior forest In
addition to the object lessons furnish
ed by the regions of Syria, of Persia.
of Ceylon, Mauritus and the Isle OF
Cyprus, where desolate ruins of cities
and civilization. Now it is either
Of the destruction of their forests. the
rivers of Europe are so affected as
some fifty years, the Elbe and Oder
have fallen seventeen inches, the
Vstula twenty-six, the Rhine twenty
eight. and the Danube fifty-five, while
the partial clearing of the valley of
the Volga of its forests has had a
perceptible effect upon even the i'm
mense area of the Caspian Sea.
Translated into measurements for
some of our own great lakes. it would
mean that fall of one foot of water
i'm the Caspian Sea would be equiva-
lent to fall OF about six feet In
Lake superior. ABOUT elght In Lakes
Michigan and Huron, eighteen in Lake
Erie, and twenty-seven in Lake On
tario
In America the object lessons of a
mistaken policy are already markedly
apparent. The great Mississippi floods
are but the beginning of what may
be eXpected if the work of killing the
forests is permitted to proceed In
New England water-powers have al
ready been affected so that the profits
of the great manufacturing plants
have been materially reduced. Yet
the greatest danger lies in the fact
that the danger itself is progressive
and the hurt practically irremediable.
The soils of the mountains left un-
protected and washed aWaV by the