The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-01
The Work in Saving Them Which the Government
 Is Doing.
THEIR OBSTINATE FOES
The Universal Self-Interest Which is to Guard the
 Trees

the west is profiting the pro blem IS now serious. A proclamation from the White House can be of no service in the Appalachians where ownership is private and the migra tory poor white farmer girdles the trees. After they die he takes a few crops, without the trouble of fer tilization or thorough cultivation, and then this top soil. fit only for forestry, which was held in place by root mesh- es, is washed away. In this way "A per cent of the Appalachian forest re- zion has beer laid waste.
 An appropriation of $35,000 for de- limiting the nucleus of an Appalachi- an national forest barely passed con gress. MT. Da'zell of Pittsburg was among those who voted against it in a desire 10 draw the line somewhere on the cranks of the agricultural de- partment (and congress has to deal with so many cranks that 1t gets con fused in separating the sheep from the goats). That was only last win ter. In the spring western Pennsyl- vania suffered from flood which cost her several millions, and Secre- tary Wilson Pinchot's chief, in his dry, you-can't t-dispute-it way, told the Pittsburg chamber of commerce that more and worse floods might be eX- pected until trees were growing again in deforested sections of the Alleghan- ies. Probably no members from western Pennsylvania will err on this subject again.
 Even a member from central Kan sas say forest experts, ought to have favored the appropriation from selfish interest; for the price of his bureaus and tables is affected by the price of hard woods. A forest policy is pol icy for all. II brings an innovation which is as necessary at this stage of our country's growth as water mains and sewers in certain stages of q towns. The delicate and the most difficult of Pinchot's task is to make men see its wisdom. Tn his hands congress has placed the power to s- sue permits for all timber cut, to name all conditions for its cutting and for grazing In the national forests. When he sought a force of administration for this service of tomorrow he found that the only trained foresters in the United States were from his own little school at Bitmore, the school his father had lately establish Q dat Yale, and other schools where scientific students had paid attention to forestry.
 A dude in Washington is Co decide whether a man out in Idaho shall cut stick of timber or notl' That was the natural war-cry of the great tim Der interests. It went home to the pioneer, bred of race of pioneers that made clearings to plant corn and used to regarding the forest as an en- emy.
 But the dude makes II a rule for himself and the responsible heads of the service 10 spend six months of the year "at the front" In turn the supervisors who are his officers in the field. one for each of the 15O forests, are brought to Washington. Under them are the forest rangers and the forest guards, who must be residents of the states where they serve
 Any settler is entitled to frewood free; to graze his COWS and horses on the forest domain adjoining his ranch. A ranger may sell s50&orth of timber a supervisor $500 worth without the consent of Washington This avoids delay in meeting immedi1te calls.
 The lumbernen must not leave blackened and unproduct,ve hillsides; thye must not cut the small trees, and they must leave strips uncut to per init of reseedlng; they must not waste by high stumpage; they must pile the brush go it can be burned safely with out making forest fires. And herd CT must not graze ground which needs a rest to save it from ruin.
 Could any reasonable man object Was it good numbering, in the name of ti>e nation. to kill the sources of timber? Good grazing 10 kill the grass roots? However hard they come at him rinchot purrs An objection means an opportunity to spread light. Even abuse he accepts as an inquiry. "The devil himself couldn't make a man who calmly plants trees as a crop lose his temper to quote one of his enemies. "He belongs in the same category with lob"
 There is no reaching him by the or dinary "pull' routes He is satisfied to know one thing we'll It is no se- cret that he might have had a cab- met office Should Cincinnatus leave the blow to be an alderman in Rome? Hardly. The savior of the trees sticks to his wood-lot; and there he has moral force and the layman may scarcely expect to beat him in argu- ment
 Pnchot knew that if he had the settlers and the prospectors with him he must win his fight Their sup port both he and his enemies sought; and his campaign documents is the use book. This he widely circulates in forest regions Its name expresses the idea Timber is for use, mo long CT to be locked up, but opened up"
 Not through his rangers, but through the intelligent self-interest of the people who live in its neighbor- hood he must guard the trees. If we had relatively as many rangers for the size of our national forests as Ger many. they would form an army of 200, 900 men So 1 400 are as needles in a haystack
 In the old days the sisnboards on the forest reserves emphasized the penalty for starting forest fires as well as for stealing timber. But the offender was in no danger of being caught in the wilderness, and he knew it The black-letter headline of the