El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-08-16

| tablish bases at which large stocks OF
| provisions may be kept. For crews OF
! ftrefighters must be fed, and absence OF
| the Indispensable grub" (to be OBJ
! tanned, perhaps, only in waiting week
for it, may paralyze tn Efforts to
contend against the flames.
But all of this costs money, which
I can be obtained only through specific
! appropriation by congress- The ma
| tional forests are an enormous prop
[ erty-one of the principal items of the
| national wealth. Congress ought to be
| willing to spend something which will
| insure them against destruction. More
/ men to patrol them, more roads and
/ trails to make them accessible, and
! more equipment for distributing intelif-
| gence and for fighting fires-these are
! the things that are needed, and for
! which the government should gladly
pay.
Often PurpOseIy Started.
! Many forest fires are purposely
/ started by incendiaries, who are Of two
| classes-(1) persons who start fires in
/ order that they may get pay for put
! ting them out, and % individuals who
have grudges to crafty. In regard to
, the latter there is something rather in
| teresting to be said.
John D. Rockefeller, the Standard
/ Oil king. has a great deal of trouble
/ to keep fire off his land in the AdirOn-
! dacks, most of which is covered by
| forest which is his private property.
| Not very long ago he bought a big
slice of territory up in that region, and
/ lost no time in warning people, who
! had always been in the habit of trav-
| cling through, to keep off.
Other millionaires have done the
same thing, and have awakened much
resentment thereby. They have in
voked, the power Of laws, made with
reference to wholly different condi-
uons' IN violation Of custom, which is
local law. Incidentally it should be re-
membered that in such regions, COW
cred by the forest primeval, the water
ways are in many cases the only high
ways. To tell people that they shall
not pass over them is, in their view,
to deny them an ancient and inalien-
able right Hence the frequent setting
Of fires on the vast estates of Mr.
Rockefeller and other rich men in the
AdirOndacks.
As a matter Of fact, whenever, a for
ested area is newly set aside for the
I use of the people at large, and thus
withdrawn from exploitation by a few
wealthy individuals, local sentiment is
usually much against it at first. Peo-
pie who have long been accustomed to
help themselves to what they wanted in
the way of wood, grazing facilities, or
what not, find themselves obliged to
get permission from Uncle Sam. They
don't like it. But invariably within a
couple of years local sentiment turns
the opposite way. People see that in
reality they have lost nothing and have
gained much by the taking of the
woodlands under the governments
wing.
They are made secure in the use of
them for themselves, their children, and
their children'S children, for indefinite
generations, instead of abandoning all
tflrs- wealth, to be divided up among a
few greedy, capitalists Some sore
- in ND nd
then one of them staTts-s-fsre; but this
IS not an exhibition of hostfIe~pSIbLESss,
sentiment Barns are frequently
burned in New England, yet public
sentiment in that part of the country
does not indorSe barn burning
Private Forests Suffer.
Naturally, the private forests suffer
from fire much more seriously than the
national forests, inasmuch as they
have, for the most part, no system OF
protection worth mentioning In an
average twelvemonth the losses in the
national forests do not exceed half a
million dollars, while the balance OF
the total annual loss Of $4,000. 900 falls
upon the private and state woodlands.
The most effective fire protection,
outside of the national forests, is in
Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, where
the large timberland owners have
formed firefighting associations on a
cooperative plan, assessing their mem
bers at so much per acre for the main
tenance Of a patrol These associa-
tons work in cooperation with the
forces employed for the same purpose
by the federal government and by the
states.
Best Method for Fighting Fires.
The most effective way to fight a
forest fire is to shovel sand or earth
upon it This process is helped, when
practicable, by beating it out from the
ends, the object being to narrow its
front Often it is possible to direct the
course of the fire toward a clearing. a
road a stream, or a swamp, from which /
point of vantage IL may be attacked.
A road or stream may afford an op-
portunity for starting a back fire" in |
the direction Of the Oncoming wall Of |
flame part of the crew being sta |
toned behind the stream or road to |
put out the sparks); but this kind of |
work has to be done very carefully |
lest the back fire initiate a fresh con /
flagration- Fire does not easily burn l
down hill, and so a narrow ridge is an 1
excellent line for defence against a |
forest fire.
The years Of great forest fires in /
this country come at least once in 4
decade, and sometimes oftener- eTen /
years ago the AdirOndacks were de- (
vastated by a conflagration which ex- 1
tended through the Atlantic seaboard |
states from Maine to Tennessee The !
y ear ISUo Will 1OuB De LeLttAilDGA gu AoA
its enormous losses by forest fires I
which were variously rcckoned at from
500. 100000 to s27O.00O,0OO. But, in
contemplating these losses, the nation,
as usual, was apathetic- People said,
Too bad and let it go at that Hinck-
ley Mimi. was destroyed in 1894 by a
forest fire which cost 500 lives and
SIS. 900, 000. It was soon forgotten
The principal reason for this apathy
seems to lie in wi I"srread popular
belief that such catasrrophies are acts
of God" and not to be prevented. But
the fact is that (as proved by their
in European counu1es)
they are entirely Preventable- They
are the consequences of neglect
Much Lack of Interest.
The popular indifference on this sub
ject was never more strongly shown
than in the Michigan ana Wisconsin
fires CT the autumn of 1908. On the
first day of September small fires We're
burning in the woods of Northern
but attracted little or no at
tentiOn. They had been smolderlng
for weeks. Four days later they were
famed into sudden fury by wind, and
swept over the cCI::try. Towns were
wiped cut. and the destruction conun-
ued until. toward the end of the month,
rains came and checked it. The 11reS |