The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1908-12-10

ct use OF the uOIcIu COIpOTdtlOu. OOr-
porations are necessary instruments of
modern business They have been per-
mitted to become a 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 ever the great corporations do
ing interstate business can be effective
only If it is vested with full power in
an administrative department, a branch
of the federal executive. carrying out
a federal law. It can never be eff
fective If a divided responsibility is
left in both the states and the nation.
1t can never be effective if left in the
hands of the courts to be decided by
lawsuits.
The courts hold a 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 not
to the same degree. With a judge
who, being human, is also likely to
err. but whose tenure is for life, there
is no similar way of holding him to
responsibility Under ordinary condi-
lions the only forms of pressure to
which he Is In any way amenable are
public opinion and the action of his
fellow judges. 1t is the last which is
most Immediately effective and to
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 it 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
temporary convenience or temporary
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
parts of the Mediterranean countries
of Europe. will surely happen in our
country it we do not exercise that
wise forethought which should be one
Of the chief marks of any people call
ing itself civilized. Nothing should be
permitted to stand in the way of the
preservation of the forests. and it is
criminal to permit individuals to pur-
chase little gain for themselves
through the destruction of forests
when this destruction is fatal to the
we'll being of the whole country in the
future.
Inland Waterways.
Action should be begun forthwith,
during the present session of congress,
for the improvement of our inland wa
terways-action which will result In
giving US not only nayigable but
navigated rivers. We have spent
hundreds of millions Of dollars upon
these waterways. yet the traffic on
nearly all of them is steadily declin-
ing. This condition is the direct re-
suit of the absence of any compre-
hensive and farseeing plan of water
way improvement. Obviously we can
not continue thus to expend the rev.
enues of the government without re-
turn. 1t is poor business to spend
money for inland navigation unless
we get it.
Such shortsighted, vacillating and
futile methods are accompanied by de-
creasing water borne commerce and
increasing traffic congestion on land,
by increasing floods and by the waste
Of public money. The remedy lies in
abandoning the methods which have
so signally failed and adopting new
ones in keeping with the needs and
demands of our people.
In report on a measure introduced
at the first session of the present con-
gress the secretary Of war said, 'The
chief defect in the methods hitherto
pursued lies in the absence of execu-
tive authority for originating compre
hensive plans covering the country or
natural divisions thereof" In this
opinion l heartily concur.
Until the work of river improvement