The Gavelyte, May 1908

94 THE GAVELYTE, countries say that people have no conception of the dangers surrounding a sojourner in any country e~cept the nations of We:!!tern Europe and their dependencies. Even "in India, which has bee~ under British control for a ct>ii– tury and a half, conditions are precarious and growing more so every day. The Hindoo has been popularly supposed to be a very treacherous individual, but really is not more so than the people of any other tropical country. 1'he race is really like a child, and has needed the paternal government "'hich England has given it. Now it is in its most dangerous state, for the people have just enough knowledge to know that they want something without knowing what they want or how to get it. That is why revolutions are generally accompanied by blood-shed and plenty of it. If India breaks out into civil war, it will take the utmost tact and strategy to avert the killing of millions. The conference of the governors with the President at Washington i~ now in full sway, and some practical results can reasonably be expected. It is too much to expect that every governor has the push and energy of the. President, but enoegh of them are so constituted as to be rallying points in the various sections of the United States around which public opinion may crystallize. Notable among them are Governor Hoch, of Kansas, who leri the fight against Standard Oil, and Governor Folk, of Missouri, who may be expected to ·bring the same energy to bear on the conservation of our national resources that he has shown in ferreting out the boodlers. The nonchalance with which some people discuss the passing of our coal and oil supply by saying that our descendants will find something to take their place ii-, truly startling. As to our forest supplies, it is sufficient to say that in Wisconsin, one of the big lumbers tates, wood is already selling at seven dollars a cord. Some recommend the taking of the tariff from lumber, and letting Ganada pour her vast supplies into the country. This· however does does not go to the root of the matter. The only real solution is one that will annually plant as many square miles of trees as are chopped down. Our magazines are full of articles and illustrations of how fertile land has been turned to a waste by denudation, while the floods that accompany the disappearance of the trees are rendering vast acres unfit for cultivation. If we want to keep our good land fertile and evenly irrigated, we must keep our waste lands forested. There is no more useful occupation to-day which a young man can entf>r than that of forestry.