Evening star., 1924-07-16
IN TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS

For several days the news from the
Pacific coast has carried reports of
wide-sweeping forest fires. The most
sensational stories have depicted a
conflagration extending from Mexico
to British Columbia, and from the
ocean eastward through Arizona.
Nevada. California. Oregon, Washing
| ton and western Montana, devastating
| great forests. destroying villages and
| menacing cities. The rainy season"
! upon the Pacific coast has been a
drought, SO that all vegetation is like
tinder, ready for . spark and a holo-
| caust. According to the reports,
thousands Of acres Of timber are de-
stroyed. and miles more are threat
ened, while the forest rangers, backed
by law, are impreSsing tourists and
summer resort boarders, as well as
farmers and every other man availa-
BILE, into the work Of clearing strips
of hundred feet in width and miles
in length, as barriers against urther
spread of the fire.
Officials of the United States Forest
Service, at headquarte ters In washing
| ton, making full allowance for sensa-
tional eXaggcration Of the reports,
coneede that the menace is serious,
for their records show that for weeks
''inf1ammability' has been rated very
high and dangerous.
Until within the last decade little
attention had been given to recording
humidity as a serious factor in deter
mining fire danger. Today every
forest ranger is equipped with a
pocket sling psychrometer with which
he tests the humidity of the atmos-
phere as closely as a sea captain
| watches his barometer With the
psychrometer the ranger knows
whether the air carries sufficient
the vegetation. If it Is dry he be-
comes alert, knowing as surely as the
seaman knows the approach of a
storm that dry atmosphere makes
dry leaves and dry vegetation Isadily
| susceptible to fire. This spring and
| many a warning through the psychrom-
! eter. Even while a fire is raging,
the psychrometer foreteHs whether
| humidity is approaching which will
| eventually lend aid in fighting the
| flames. or whether dryness will bring
| sudden flaming up to a smolderlng
| fire. Humidity is Of greater effect in
preventing fire than mere occasional
| rains wetting down the blanket OF
! dead leaves and ferns, since, no matter
| how wet the ground may be, dry air
| will soon dry the foliage or ferns to
| d point Of dangerous infiammability.
| 1t is that condition which now causes
| the most concern in the fire region Of
| the west.
1t is not far cry from the Allan
| tic to the Pacific, when considering
the effect, even in the east, of wide
| spread forest destruction upon the
Californian slopes and in the Ore
gon valleys. The east is directly con-
cerned in the destruction of timber
upon the Pacific coast, because that
| is about all the timber there. is left
from the "inexaustible supply of for
| ests," which burdened our forefathers
when they wanted to carve out
| farm here or there in the intermip-
| able woods. We are now paying more
for freight alone on the lumber we
use in the east than our fathers paid
for choice, aight-grained, clear
lumber delivered at their doors. The
| total freight on lumber amounts to
| 50,000,000 a year, and every nre
| which destroys an acre of timber
upon the Pacific adds mileage to our
bills. At last we shall have to add a
sea voyage in hauling lumber from
Alaska.
The loss by a forest fire is not the
board measure of what is DESTROYED.
especially in young forest. says the