The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1914-06-26
MAN and THE TREE
[Mrs Austin Gallagher i'm 1.-The Evening


Man and the Tree" with special ap-
plication to Baltimore's shade tree
situation, although the plea for the
planting and preservation OF shade
trees is needed in every town in
Maryland The article was publish
ed In the Baltimore Evening Sun"
and some extracts from it are given
below:
II we should stop long enough to
think to realize that trees are az much
a part of the great universal scheme
as are the sun, moon and stars, the
rivers and seas, the animal creation,
including ourselves, would we, won
ar, consider we had the right to
IoJz on inactively, as we have done,
while daily, hourly, the determination
OF this glorious product Of nature
goes on? We believe not; but the
trouble il that we don't have time to
stop and think. The American public
il too busy achieving supremacy as
the live wire" nation OF today to
trouble much with such lofty ideal"
a. that of conservation for her own
nation of tomorrow.
Id is due partly to this and partly
To a sort OF youthful inattention-a
lack of interest in anything that is
not quickly available-that has left
us, early in our career, practically
treeIess-as compared to our tree
inheritance. Possibly all nations have
gone through this stage of suficiency
unto the day being the evil thereof;
but that they passed safely through
and beyond il, their treasuring Of the
forests OF Arden and the wales Of
Tempe attest And we, too, are quite
Oil enough to know better. a nation
th1t demands and receives recogni
ton upon a basis of equal intellectual
progress with older nations and yet
avoids this intellectual issue of the
tree Except in spots) should not
vauat too much that progress.
Surely the care-free destruction OF
our natural resources must make a
student OF conservation thankful that
out of all our marvellous birthright
OF Heaven and earth the Creator in
trusted to the control of man but the
animal, vegetable and mineral king
doms OF the earth. For certainly the
quality of the latteris stewardship
of these things proves Providence to
have been "all-wise" in denying him
further realms of responsibility. To
illustrate, begin with our guardian
ship of the dumb animals. Have We
not, generally speaking, enacted the
role of their oppressor since the
world began? 1t was only a half cen
fury ago, with the establishment in
New York by Henry Bergh Of the first
Animal Protective Association, that a
comprehension of our noblesse oblige
to the brute creation-of its equal
right with man to comfort and happi-
ness-gradually spread through the
world. Up to that time the life Of the
average domestic animal, as a rule,
spelled tragedy. And we can say even
now that the millennium OF the horse,
the dog and the cat is not still lam
entably far distant?
A. to minerals, according to in
controvertible expert opinion, they
too have been disastrously squan-
dered. DIR. Holmes, chief OF the
United States Bureau of Mines, has
only this week issued a warning
against the further unchecked waste
of coal, natural gas, oil, etc, urging
that only through rigid conservation
of all our natural resources can the
prosperity of this country continue.
And just here the thought occurs to
me that waste in this particular
realm il the more deplorable and IN
pardonable because of the fact that
minerals obviously do not reproduce
their kind. Consequently, with how
ever much solicitous care from US
now, more coal cannot be propagated
where, as a result of mans greed,
coal has ceased to be.
But, thank Heaven, this is not so
of the vegetable world; and though
we must wait many a weary year for
the maturity of the forest tree, its
king, we may still be able, If we
will, to make creditable report up
on Ut at the Judgment Day.
And If our eyes are at last open to
the Importance of trees in the uni
yersaI scheme" and il we truly ap-
preCiate their significance as health,
wealth and beauty factors OF our eX-
s-ence-whether we live mostly
among bricks and mortar or in Gods
great out Of doors-the battle is near
ly, though not quite, won.
Then waste no more energy In
mourning the myriads of oaks sacri-
feed. according to scientific state
ment, hundreds OF years before their
diyinely allotted time, of pines whose
evergreen bOughs waved in a thou
sand Christmases, nor OF elms that,
with our forefathers, withstOOd the
shot and shell Of the hostile Redcoats,
only to BE- sacrificed, with greater
ignOminy, by the hostile ak of their
guardians Of later generation, For
well, all this il dead wood" sure
enough. So come out with us into
the optimistic future There lies
within IL splendid obligation.
But wait a moment to eXult with
me that among our natural resources
the heavenly bodies were not included.
III we had had jurisdiction over the
planets ('live-wire" vandals that we
have proved ourselves to be) and had
had whack at the sun, for instance,
where would We be now? Old Sol
might have been hauled down, broken
UP and sold to the highest bidders as
furnace coal And alluring Venus
well, it is quite likely that the Goth
aMltaa might have liked her Ill a
laMp-p0st light for their "Great White
Way. And the sweet romantic moon,
dear t0 every heart-why, she, being
made Of green cheese, would have
been eaten Up long ago. Grated moon
over Macaroni, welsh rarebit a Ia
lune, and 10 on.
Lut now, assuming Jhat we are at
last brought to justice-been duly ar