Bogalusa enterprise and American. (Bogalusa, La.) 1918-19??, 1921-05-05

THAT he did not set the woods on fire
and that he does not know who dld;
that he is not particularly IN favor
of it, and never considered 1t. worth
while to be against 1t. Did you ever
stop to think that ten-year-old lad.
with one rabbit dog and one-hal1
dozen matches, is capable Of burn
ing over ten thousand acres OF land
with little or no effort and less
thought? Then when you think OF
hundreds of fine boys, white ana
black, all loaded with the deadly
matches, and followed by the willing
dog, tramping through the dry, dead
grass nearly every day from the first
frost in the Fall until the green grass
in the Spring in quest Of sport ana
fun, you viii not wonder that the
woods just will and must burn. TINS
is not confined to the country boys
Proportionately, more of them come
out of the towns and cities.
You can't blame the fellows, the
woods are a fine place to go and a
boy that does not love a good dog
and fine chase is not normal. de
does not burn the woods maliciously.
He has not been taught. Boys and
men, who have been taught to think,
know that game of all kinds would be
much more plentiful if the woods
should never burn. 1t is, therefore,
reasonable to thing that they would
not tolerate anything which would
tend to drive out of existence the
thing which is the source of their fun.
On the contrary, the hunters and
sportsmen, the source Of so many
wild fires now, will, when taught and
informed on the subject, make our
very best fire patrolmen in prevent
ing fires. Then, how shall they be
taught?
First should say in the home.
Second-In the schools.
In case of the grown men who are
not in the schools any more, and who |
do not know, the men and women in
the community, who do know, should |
organize community fire protective
associations, the purpose of which |
should be two-fold: Cooperation in
preventing and fight such fires in
their own community, and promoting
all the information available on the
subject among their fellows. When
the people themselves become suffi-
GENTLY interested to organize these
fire fighting associations, the battle |
is won. And it would be easy for any |
to do this thing. When I
you come to sound out your neigh
bors, one by one, on the subject, /
dare say you will be more astonished |
than ever to learn that, with few eX-
ceptions, they will be Of the same
mind as yourself and will fall quickly |
into line. You, also, will begin to find |
out, if you should not know already, |
where the trouble is coming from.
Suppose each community in Wash I
ington parish should voluntarily form
such an organization and hold enough |
meetings to reach an understanding |
as to how is the best way to protect |
themselves and the woods in their |
range from these burnings A mutual |
understanding is about all that it |
would take. 1t is not the purpose of |
this article to discuss the details as
to fire lanes and control burnirgs, |
and the laws and the rights of the in |
dividual land owners, that phase of |
the question constitutes a good sub |
ject within itself. The men in the
country know these things already. |
They are hard to practice because of
this lack of cooperation. Commun-
ity organizations would soon result in
a parish-wide association.
Think you that under such bust
ness direction that willful violators
of our fire laws would not find hard
The people themselves
should take hold of the situation,
then results will follow. One lone