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Carl Schurz On The Forestry Problem

Carl Schurz On The Forestry Problem image
Parent Issue
Day
28
Month
April
Year
1897
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

It will not be difficult to protect tbe timber-lands against robbery i f proper means be granted. Especially will this be easy to tlie national government Indian wars are no longer to be apprehended. A large part of the army will be disposable for othcr olijeets. Why sliould not a few battalions be organized and specially instructed as forest guarda for sucb service? There could hardly be a more useful employment for the soldier in time of peace. The next problem will be to keep the fcrests so saved from devastation in a state of constant and profitable renewal, so as to make thein a source of public revenue. This is a matter of science and of administration. In tliis respect several European countriea present to us a noble example and a vast store of experience ; and it is to be hoped that we have at last outgrown the childish notion that we are too great to learn anything from "abroad." Xo respectable American university or college sliould be without its forestry departnient, manued with instructora perfectly familiar with European systems ; and nobody sliould be intrusted with forest administration other than persons educated iu such schools. The flrst requirenieut to be kept in mind is that this branch of tbe public service be kept severely out of politics ; for scientific administration has no more dangerous enemy than the "practical" party politician. . This is an experience which especially the Governor of Kew York, if iie is in earnest with bis forestry policy, should not a moment forget. It may sound like an exaggeration to say that, as to the future prosperity of fchis country, the matter of forest preservation and renewal is far more importand than the tariff or the currency. But it is tbe sober trwth. Xor is there any time to be lost. We have already sinned overmuch ; and unless we make baste to stop the progress of ruin and to repair the injury done, ourchildren will curse the wanton recklessness of their f a there. - Harper's Weeklv.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Courier