Evening star., 1944-07-14
This and That
BY Charles Z. TYaceweH.
"CORnf1fSl ApTs

Dear Sir: 81
II liked what you said in the paper
the other day araent the preventive
measures against squirrels.
Sometimes 1t seems to me much
might be said as to thu rigots and cruel
measures which humans sonIttimes en-
ploy against the so-called pests.
Faithfully yours, E. w. c."
It Is not, at bottom, a matter Of cruel
ty 50 much as bf interference with
nature.
Nature was here before we were. The
way things have worked out, in both
living and inert matter. Is what we are
and what everything is
Millions OF years are behind 1t. The
decision comes when mans affairs are
trampled on.
Just where the line is to be drawn it
Is difncult to say. No one disputes the
right OF man to defend himself against
disease-bearing insects and rodents.
Man, himself, despite his intelligence
and self-knowledse, unique among liv-
Ing things, has made many mistakes
and Is in fair position to make many
more in interfering with nature.
His introduction Of various pests to
control other pests has sometimes re-
suited in worse condition than he had
before. And the original pest, alas, was
not controlled"
Mans cutting Of forests has resulted
In dust bowls
Even mans cities have come to 4
point where blight rears its ugly head
Large books are being written on the
plain problems Of urban areas, with
some emphasis on what is to be done
about the problem of juvenile delin-
quency.
All these things point to the plain
fact that man is not as smart In some
ways as he thinks he is
There is great chain in nature, and
any undue killing of various species may
result in breaking a link or seriously
damaging 1t.
In some sections all the beavers were
killed, and now they are trying to get
them back again. Yet the truth is that
Individually this animal at times is a
nuisance and blocks streams to the
harm Of an individual farmer
If this individual farmer is to set
himself up as the sole Judge and jury,
he undoubtedly will give a sentence
against the individual beaver or colony
which he thinks harms him, and will
proceed to carry out his sentence.
Suppose there are other individuals
who feel the same way. They all begin
to shoot. When the shooting is over
there are no more beavers. and then
in time things begin to happen. Streams
dry up, and things go from bad to
worse
The trouble comes partly because
those who start the process do not live
long enough to see what happens A
single life is not long enough. The COL
lective lives Of man are required to get
at the plain truth Of conservation and
its good results, on the one hand, and
OF indiscriminate killing and its bad
results on the other.
The balance Of nature, even in sub
urban areas, Is pretty definite. Stray
killings, here and there, may not seem
to make much difference, but when
they are added to other stray killings
the total result is something else again.
Man Is cruel at times, because he
does not know, and at other times be-
cause he is completely Indifferent to the
Joy and happiness of other living
things. Man, in the last 10 years, has
shown himself so Indifferent to free
dom that In large sections of the earth
he has reintroduced human slavery, OF
all things, when all decent men thought
1t had been wiped out as an idea in the
human mind. :
Those Of us who, moving to the SUBJ
urbs, become interested In nature
should remember that nature and ita
creatures were there long before We
realised 1t, and that our judgment
after al II likely to be one-sided unlesa
~ stop 70 think q the chain wiaieh 4
l nature,