The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-30
THE NATURE" CONTROVERSY

added intensity through the denuncla-
tion by President Roosevelt of GER
tain of them, and especially through
his personal assault upon DR.. William
j. Long, a naturalist writer, of Con-
necticut. Mr.. Long, in the dispatches
Yesterday morning, comes back at the
President in vigorous style, declaring
that what he has written he knows TO
be true and can prove, and that the
President in dcnouncing MIN as fakir,
was not only unwarranted in such de-
nunciation, but ungentlemanly in his
manner of expressing it. and that
retraction and apology are due.
Probably there will be neither re-
traction nor apology; but the incident
directs attention anew to the enor-
nous versatility of the President tai
ents. 1t is true that President Roose
welt, so far as nature study is con-
cerned, has been renowned more as
hunter than as an observer or special
ist in noting the habits and pecuhari,
ties of wild animals in their native
haupts; he would know these habits
merely as they helped him as a hunter.
But he is a great friend of Mr.. John
Burroughs, who is in fact a keen OBJ
server of nature, especially of birds
and of the smaller animals that haunt
the region where Mr., Burroughs re-
sides, in Eastern New York State.
Upon all the fauna of that region Mr..
Burroughs is pretty good authority.
He has had some experience also, and
no doubt wide reading, in the study of
nature elsewhere. At the same time.
Mr.. Burroughs is not expressly quoted
in the article IN which the President
denounces certain nature fakirs, among
them Mr.. Long. Mr.. Burroughs, how
ever not long ago, in an Eastern mag
azine. took Mr.. Long and others to
! task for some of their writings, and
| he was especially wroth with regard to
certain alleged observations Of a colony
of beaver, wherein acute intellectual
| feats were recorded that one would
| hardly have suspected beaver capable
of indulging in. AT the same time,
while Mr. Burroughs might not think
these things possible and while the
ordinary reader might have ms creduli-
| ty strained little in reading of them,
ii is pretty hard to say definitely as
TO anything Of this kind that it did
not occur, when q competent observer,
a man of intelligence, education, train
| ing and good facilities of observation,
| says that he has seen the thing he de
! scribes Mr. Burroughs could merely
say that he had not seen and did not
| believe, from what he had seen of other
| colonies of beaver and read of what
| beavers are capable OF doing, that what
was described as true could be true.
and not Of fact.
Clearly the President is gaining moth
ing by his assault upon Mr.. Long; or,
| in fact. by his invasion of this field,
| Undoubtedly he is relying upon Mr..
! Burroughs to help him out, and evi-
IDENTIFY he has keenly enjoyed the public
exposures made by Mr.. Burroughs in
the past of certain fighty and erratic
accounts given by incompetent observ-
ers of what they have heard people
say There has sprung up consider
! able number Of so-called nature writers
who take no pains TO separate fact
from Imagination. Since the Jungle
stories of Kiplng, all sorts of animals
have been idealized and made to go
! through their PAGES much as such ami
mails would do if they were endowed
with the reasoning powers and keen
ness of intellect of human beings. All
this, however, is accepted at its true
value by the public, and it is only
| when the mine Of Imagination is grave
| ly worked for the real product of fact
and value that il is necessary for the
competent naturalist to step in with his
calm exposure
AS President Roosevelt is not a nat.
uralist and depends upon information
from Mr.. Burroughs and others, but
chiefly upon Mr.. Burroughs, it would
surely be better for him to have kept
out of this controversy altogether. AT
( the same time it must be acknowledged
( that il is extremely difficult for Mr.,
Roosevelt TO keep out of any contro-
versy that may arise; he has to take n
hand in it, and If no other gentleman
will start little shindy he is pretty
apt To start one himself. However, In
this broad land of ours where there
are so many diversities OF opinion and
so much of Intellectual controversy, it
is not difficult for the President to
find some shindy in progress in which
he can participate. In some of the lit
tie troubles that he has projected him
self into he has not come out by any
means first best However. that does
not deter him in the least from the
willing and keen entry into the next
controversy that comes to hand. As
| to his nredilectinn In this resnecf II is