The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-12-08

uals made possible only by the improp-
er use of the modern corporation. Cor
porations are necessary instruments of
modern business. They have been per-
mitted to become menace largely be-
cause the governmental representatives
of the people have worked slowly in
providing for adequate control over
them.
Real damage has been done by the
manifold and conflicting interpreta-
lions of the interstate commerce law.
Control over the great corporations do
ing interstate business can be effective
only if it is vested with full power in
an administrative department branch
of the federal executive, carrying out
federal law. 1t can never be eff
| fectfve If a divided responsibility is
left in both the states and the nation.
1t can never be effective if left in the
| lawsuits.
The courts hold place of peculiar
and deserved sanctity under our form
of government. Respect for the law Is
essential to the permanence of our in
stitutions. and respect for the law is
largely CONDITIONED upon respect for
the courts. But we must face the fact
that there are wise and unwise judges,
just as there are wise and unwise ex-
ecutives and legislators. When a
president or governor behaves improp-
erly or unwisely the remedy is easy,
for his term is short The same is
true with the legislator, although pot
to the same degree With a judge
who, being human, is also likely 70
err. but whose tenure is for life, there
is no similar way of holding him to
responsibility. Under ordinary condi-
fions the only forms of pressure tf
which he is in any way amenable are
public opinion and the action Of his
fellow judges. 1t is the last which il
most Immediately effective and 70
which we should look for the reform
Of abuses
Forests.
If there is any one duty which more
than another we owe it to our children
and our children's children to perform
at once 1t is to save the forests of
this country. for they constitute the
first and most important element in
the conservation Of the natural re-
sources of the country.
Shortsighted persons, or persons
blinded to the future by desire to
make money in every way out of the
present, sometimes speak as If no
great damage would be done by the
reckless destruction of our forests. 1t
is difficult to have patience with the
arguments of these persons. Thanks
to our own reckleSsness in the use of
our splendid forests, we have already
crossed the verge of a timber famine
in this country, and no measures that
we now take can, at least for many
years, undo the mischief that has al
ready been done. But we can prevent
further mischief being done, and it
would be in the highest degree repre-
hensible to let any consideration Of
cost interfere with such action. espe-
cially as regards the national forests.
which the nation can now at this very
moment control
1.-THE president here cites In support
Of his contentious the great destruc-
ton wrought In China by the denuda-
ton OF the forest areas.
What has thus happened In northern
China, what has happened in central
Asia. In Palestine, In north Africa. In
pnrts Of the Mediterranean countries
Of Europe. win surely happen in our
country II we do not exercise that
Ewise forekhbught which should Be one