The Washington herald., 1910-03-22
AT THE HOTELS.

AT THE HOTELS.
To-day the traveller from New York to
Chicago can lock up his office at the
close of business. go to the Grand Cen
trail station or ferry across to the Jersey
City station, board one of the eighteen
hour trains, and get to Chicago before
the opening of the business day there"
said Charles F. Walker, banker and
real estate man Of New York.
And while going. If he will pull down
the curtains. he might almost imagine
himself at a first-class New York hotel
If he wants TO get shaved, he finds
barber shop. If he wants to dictate let
tiers or kilograms, he finds a free stenog-
rapher aboard. If he wants to read. ne
has access to an excellent little library.
in which there is something to suit every
cultivated taste. He can take his regular
morning bath and find hts clothes care
fully pressed II he IS convivial, there is
handsome little bar on the train where
the cup that cheers may be had In the
usual variety.
everything that a man should wish he
will find And there are trains Of a SINH
! lar character. except as TO speed. on
nearly every important road in the United
states. A foreigner, when taking his first
/ trip on one of these fine trains, looked
around him for while and then re-
marked: Riding on the train IN America
is like being a guest IN a rich mans
house,"
Levi p. Morton. former Vice President
| of the United States. and Mrs. Morton
are at the Arlington.
| Discussing conservation. Herman H.
Nelson. OF Minneapolis. Mimi. who was
seen at the Riggs last night. said The
need of lumber for homes. for ships. for
| fire wood, for the thousand and one ae-
| eessories 10 civilized progress OF the ma
/ ton. has made numbering one Of the
greatest industries in the United States.
First" continued Mr.. Nelson. 'the
center was in the New England States,
and men with axes and saws and great
| log teams invaded the forests and cut
and sawed and endangered their lives
| in floating logs downstream, until to-
day Maine, the great Pine Tree State
must import her own pine timber. Then
the center swept to the virgin forests Of
| the Middle Northwest. until men vino
had ruthlessly cut and burned among
the forest lands awoke TO the realization
that they must soon themselves be paw
ing SIS a cord for frewood Then the
South became the center, builders and
manufacturers taking toll Of the great
forest lands there until Memphis has
arisen to prominence as the greatest
hardwood lumber market In the world,
and a stack of planks covering more
| than forty acres Is an everyday sight
in the territory bordering on Wolf River.
This section cannot long remain the
center under existing conditions Then
the call of the West will be heard. and
where even now giant Sequoias and
Douglass frs are being skidded down
the mountain and sent of by rail- to
meet the ever-growing demands, an even
greater percentage will be taken, and the
/ West. too, will pay the price Of national
prosperity.
| The people OF the United States have
suffered at their own hands, or at the
hands OF their neighbors, for two CEN
turtles or more. Mountain sides. denuded
OF their forests. have no longer been able
to conserve the rain and snow fall, and
sudden dangerous floods have been pre-
cipitated in the valleys below. eroding the
hillsides, sweeping alluviai lands out to
sea, rendering farms unproductive. and
leaving no water reserve for summer
days. With no trees 20 break the wind
or to temper the climate, winter and sum-
mer. a decided climatic revolution has
swept over some sections. Sheep and
/ goat raisers have allowed their f1Ocks 20
/ craze over great sections OF forest land.
where they have swept the floor Of the
| hills clean before them. stripping young
trees Of their foliage. eating all grass and
young shoots and trampIing the ground
| into a barren waste, the land behind
stretching out as desoIats as though a
/ fire had blown that way Fires from
ilumbermen's camps. from hunters pipes,
! from trains. from Indian nut gatherers'
small clearing frames and from lightning
struck trees have burned not only the
trees and underground, but have eaten
several feet deep into the rich leafmold
below, rendering the soil almost too sterile
for immediate forest reproduction.
And yet there are people high in eff
cial life who are practically fighting the
conservation scheme with ali the power
and influence at their hands"
Nathan C. Carter. OF Chicago a prom
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