Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-12-03

are rapidly being exhausted and that if no change takes place exhaustion will come comparatively soon and. that the effects of it will be felt severely in the everyday life of our people. Surely when these facts are so obvi- ous there should be no delay in taking preventive measures. Yet we seem as nation to be willing to proceed in this matter with happy go lucky indif- ference even to the immediate future. It is this attitude which permits the self interest of very few persons to weigh for more than the ultimate in- terest of all our people. There are per sons who find it to their immense pe- cuniary benefit to destroy the forests by numbering. They are to be blamed for thus sacrificing the future of the nation as whole to their own self in- terest of the moment, but heavier blame attaches to the people at large for permitting such action, whether in the White mountains, in the southern Alleghanies or ill the Rockies and Sier- ras. A big numbering company, impa- tient for immediate returns and not caring to look far enough ahead, will often deliberately destroy all the good timber in region, hoping afterward to move on to some new country. The shiftless man of small means who does not care to become an actual home maker, but would like immediate prof
 it, will find 1t to his advantage to take up timber land simply to turn it over to such a big company and leave it valueless for future settlers. A big mine owner, anxious only to develop his mine at the moment, will care only to cut all the timber that he wishes without regard to the future, probably not looking ahead to the condition of the country when the forests are ex- hausted any more than he does to the condition when the mine Is worked out.
 I do not blame these men nearly as much as I blame the supine public opinion, the indifferent public opinion, which permits their action to go un- checked Of course to check the waste of timber means that there must be on the part of the, public the accept ance of a temporary restriction in the lavish use of the timber in order to prevent the total Joss of this use in the future. There are plenty of men in public and private life who actually advocate the continuance of the pres ent system of unchecked and wasteful extravagance, using as an argument the fact that to check 1t will of course mean interference with the ease and comfort of certain people who now get lumber at less cost than they ought to pay at the expense of the future gen erations. Some of these persons actu- ally demand that the present forest reserves be thrown open to destruc- tiOn because, forsooth, they think that thereby the price of lumber could be put down again for two or three or , more years. Their attitude is precise ly like that of an agitator protesting against the outlay of money by farm CTS on manure and in taking care of their farms generally. Undoubtedly if the average farmer were content ab- solutely to ruin his farm he could for two or three years avoid spending any money on it and yet make good deal of money out of 1t. But only say age would in his private affairs show such reckless disregard of the future, yet it is precisely this reckless disre- gard of the future which the oppo- nents of the forestry system are now endeavoring to get the people of the United States to show. The only trou- ble with the movement for the preser- vation of our forests Is that it has not gone nearly far enough and was not begun soon enough. It is a most fortunate thing, however, that we be- gan it when we did. We should ac- quire in the Appalachian and White mountain legions all the forest lands ! that 1t is possible to acquire for the use of the nation. These lands be- cause they form a national asset are as emphatically national as the rivers which they feed and which flow through so many states before they reach the ocean.