The Owosso times., 1922-01-20
CURW0OD ASKS
QUICK ACTION
WANTS GOVERNOR TO AID
CONSERVATION.
BY James Oliver Curwood.

may bring himself into court,
along with his policies of conser-
vation and propagation of wild
life and forests in Michigan,
through a libel suit which he has
publicly announced may be
brought against me in Shiawassee
county. I feel 1t my duty to give
to the press and the people Of the
state, and to the governor, certain
which are in my mind.
Personally, 1 have no shadow
of doubt but that an astonishing
of affairs will be revealed
in this court action. IL 1t occurs.
The efficiency and amazing hap
penings of our present system will
be laid naked to the very bottom.
So monumental are the truths
that they cannot be smothered.
After this court action every man
and woman in Michigan who can
read will know why we have lost
our forests, why our freight costs
on imported timber alone were
$40, 100000 last year, why our
lakes and streams are becoming
barren, why our wild life is nearing
annihilation, and why many OF the
guardians of our natural resources
our fire and game wardens-are
so pathetically inefficient, though
enough. Nothing could
be better for the state than this
airing of a deplorable condition in
a public court.
Appeal to Governor.
In bringing this airing about
in prosecuting the crusade which
n 1rt. nt~ ~ al
personal or political ambition of
my own-I have more than once
publicly appealed for action on the
part of Governor Groesbeck,
that at all times he is in
q position to cast powerful in
fuence in the balance. L realize
the fact that a governors task,
even under the best of conditions,
is a big one. and that no man can
know everything. / have also TAX
EN- into consideration the fact that
Governor Groesbeck is primarily
4 city man. and has always, as L
believe, been interested in big
which have had very
little to do with the great out
doors and it's enormous natural
Therefore, up to this
lime. l have realized that he must
nave time in which 10 think and
act in a matter of such great i'm
Dortance as that which is now at
ssue.
But it is my personal opinion
hat the time TO act has come.
From the farthest settlement in
he upper peninsula to the south
counties the men and
women of the state are reused.
Tens of thousands of them have
ong known of the conditions
against which 1 have been fighting. |
public sentiment is overwhelming. |
Facts have risen to the surface in |
hundreds. Proofs are easy to
each out and seize.
Therefore, l believe that the gov
rnor of, Michigan, the one man |
bove all others in whom we should
ave faith, should himself take &C.
ion and show his interest and |
in a great cause before |
. court enquiry says that such ac-
ion is necessary.
Forests with a possible value OF |
,illions, and inpumerable lakes and |
ivers, cannot be run politically, |
hough a government can. Only |
efficiency, spelled in capital letters,
will preserve these assets, which |
,elong to all Of us.
At this writing, when heart AMI
oul 1 am in this fight to the last |
Itch, L would willingly-and /
peak with no desire to be dra-
a year of my life Il
Governor Groesbeck could have |
cen what | have seen during the |
,ast two years of my investigations |
n Michigan.
See Timber Fires.
II he could drive with me over |
he 100 square miles of timberland |
which were burned during the two
ears of 1919 and 1920, he would
eel the same chill of horror in his
Ieart which 1 feel, and would
now that a housecleaning is neces-
ary.
II he could see fire after fire |
Without a warden on the job, and
ould travel the forests and |
treams and see for himself the
utlawry and slaughter, with so
eldom a warden on the job, he
,ould know something was wrong
If in every settle
nent and town he could feel his
ars burning with the complaints
nd hopelessness of their best cit
zens, he would act.
If he could see the countless
anne and fish and forest fire VIOLA
ions under the very noses of those
Who are paid to protect these
hings, he would not sleep nights
ntil he had remedied the situation.
( he Travelled day after day in the
cry heart of the deer-hunting re-
ions without meeting a warden,
nd returned to civilization to find
hem always waiting at the rail-
gay stations, he would mete out
onest judgment upon them.
Conservation does not narrow it
elf down to those men, hundreds
( thousands though they be, who
% hunting and fishing. The fu-
ure of our state, the future of the
,orld, our very lives depend upon
Intelligent conservation, and an
not based solely on polit-
,al influence. The direction of
hat work of conservation should
q one of the mightiest efforts of
he state. and no man Is too big
or It. That man who does not get
r.. -. Al f,..l y