The Colorado statesman., 1923-06-16
FORESTRY DISPUTE
NEVER DIES OUT
PRESIDENT HARDING MAY GET
TRUTH ON CONSERVATION
WHEN IN ALASKA.
SOME THINK 1T IS 0VERD0NE
William Russell Dudley's Interesting
Story Of the Life History of Great
Tree in the Converse Basin, Cali
fornia.
BY EDWARD 3. CLARK

Washlngton.-There are officials In
Washington who believe in proper con-
servation of the national resources OF
the country, but who say they would
like to find out once for all what
proper conservation Is. In Washing
ton, as presumably elsewhere where
people talk about the subject, there
seems to be no middle ground of opin-
ion on this subject. 1t is a case or
save everything" on the one side and
destroy everything" on the other side.
Forestry has been the cause of row
after row in the government service.
The stories of some of the disturbances
which tree conservation has kicked up
are too well Known to need repetition,
but the hard facts seem to be that the
rows are likely to be continued In
definitely into the future. Mention
tree even casually In Washington and
1t instantly becomes necessary to get
under cover in order to avoid contro-
versy or something worse.
Probably President Harding would
not go to Alaska this summer If one
part of Its domain were not producing
great forests of trees. If one were to
believe all that he hears about tree
conservation and the general subject
of Alaska trees, he could learn In five
minutes on the one hand that greedy
corporations want to cut down every
stick of timber overnight, and on the
other hand that the forestry service is
determined that no one, for whatever
Oh, hn n oil nIIt
of Alaska so much as silver or
chip of its forest growth.
Too Much Conservation?
While forest conservation has been
the cause of recurring rows in the gov
ernment ever since the Ballinger-Pin-
chot affair, it can be said that in the
earlier days it was much easier to I'M
derstand the reasons for the difference
of opinion between the two schools of
thought on the general forestry mat
ter Then it seemed to be case, so
far as the foresters were concerned,
of a willingness to allow timber to be
cut so long as its cutting was re-
stricted and care in numbering meth
ods was exercised. The foresters
wanted to save and to use at the same
time.
Now If some of the partisans In the
Interior department in its recent con-
troversy with the Agriculture depart
ment are to be believed, the foresters
are OVERRIDING the matter of conser-
walton. This may not be true, and as
a matter of fact anything which is said
on this general forestry subject in
Washington should be studied and
"proved up" before belief in it is ex-
pressed. In this one government mat
ter "you never can tell"
Trees are interesting for other rea-
sons than for the rows that they kick
up in the government service. Some
trees are more interesting than others.
Perhaps a little extract from an article
on a tree by William Russell Dudley,
after he had made study of the
great growths in the Converse basin,
California, may prove the point of in
terest.
Story of California Tree.
Mr.. Dudley wrote of the remarkable
recuperative power of some of the
great trees in the basin after they had
been injured by a fire, and then he
continued:
among a number of similar cases