Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-07-30
THOMAS {. WILL ON COUNTRY'S
HERITAGE, ITS WRECK And RESCUE
Secretary Of American Forestry Associa-
ton Tells Large Audience at Chautau-
qua Society's Plans for Preservation
of Woods.

despoiled, how can this end be at
tanned?
The sufferings of the old world
should instruct us. France largely de-
stroyed her forest one hundred years
ago. Disastrous floods followed. To
repair the damage the government, at
dollars an acre, has bought and is
buying waste mountain lands, and
erecting on these slopes walls to pre-
vent the downpour of earth into these
streams. The forests would have
done this work better, without costing
the nation a sou and, at the same
time, would have yielded abundant
crops of lumber and wood.
About Greece.
Greece, in the age of Pericles, the
delight of the whole earth, and still,
in many ways, the tunattained ideal of
modern n~ations--has been located and
despoiled of her forest wealth.
Today 1.-THE glory that was Greece"
is but a sad memory. Asia Minor is
minor indeed When cedars clothed
the slopes of Lebanon, Palestine,
Land of Promise, once flowing with
milk and honey, supported in com
fort ten million people. Today the
forests are gone, and the land main
tains in wretchedness and want a
handful numbering 400, 900.
China's mountain slopes have been
picked bare. The soil disappeared
only to be carried back in ~basketfuls
on human backs, and laboriously de-
posted artificial terraces. Defor-
~estation occasioned the floods of the
great yellow, "the grief of China and
accentuated the famines which de-
stro~ human lives by tens of thou
sands. America may learn, without
charge, from these foreign expert
ences or, at inestimable expense, she
may later learn from her WI
Forests DispoiIed.
The cause, whether abroad or at
home, of the destruction of natural
resources is simple. The government
has stood with folded hands and
bandaged eyes, while individuals have
%despoiled the public heritage as the
vandals sacked Rome. They have
even used the government to further
their own private ends. The cure re-
quires the awakening Of government
to its duty. 1t alone Is powerful
enough to stop the destruction and in
augurate a policy of conserving, for
the fullest use of all, that which of
right belongs to all.
But the government serves the peo-
pie only when urged forward by the
people. Our national government Is
the greatest engine ever created by
man. It's power for good is incalcul-
able. Neglected by the citizens, how
ever, it inevitably falls into the hands
of spoilers, who paralyze its arm, or
use 1t as an agency of plumber. The
people must assert themselves while
yet there !. time BY working togeth.
er forfthe common good, and conserv.
ing what remains Of our common stock
cf wealth, they may vastly diminish
the intensity Of the individual struggle
for existence and correspondingly in
crease the opportunity for each. to
live the largest and fullest life.
European Experience.
European experience proves that
public ownership and administration
of forests, especially OF those CONTROL,
ing stream flow. solves the problem OF
the forest and OF the interests depend
ont upon it. Results in Germany are
especially gratifying.
On March 8. 1891, congress passed
the national Forest law, empowering
the president 10 proclaim national for
ests or the pubic domain. Successive
presidents have pushed the work Of
establishing sucl forests until These
now exceed in area all the states cas-
of Ohio and north of North Carolina
Outside the n ,tional ~forcsts. Tres ar,
destroy ing annually fifteen million