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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 1908)
x- x s. X XXX . A X -X- i Nv x .-- . r ' . X -X- X. ' XWX' XX XX S X X XX x r X x $ vXxx v x-x " X- x - X - J s XX s , ,TVxx xCtlws K JAvxxx- hxxhx sxv . r v tx xx xx fx ,n . - "X X: .xxxx;kvxx x v x x, x, - -is PORTLAND, OREGON, : . SUNDAY HORNING, NOVEMBER '.8. : 1903 ' J ( v ix h v- vA i fTw? &r . I ilU't-XXv, .Xdj-.r-;,; f 'X ; - v. Ik Mrf: - hr s$r?h& it-V'' ? I -'? ' :-jt-t j. ri r, r i , , , tm0 , , , , ,, . I III".- - - -v. - ; li ... - I '..,- r ' ,l Sij I - . . ,.' x;:;x;x:: ;xx:V 1 f x - X ; . 1 ? - r - ' .XS, f ' 11 : -X 1:-'. IV:1 -ii:-;r H ;-y I U , x ' . . 9rX- x ix ?l III U.V. - . THE COSTLY-LESSQNlfi A'-fifei '"SV:5.''v V1 TAUGHT-BV SWEEPING'' 111 , :'X 5-"'. X 'X BLAMES THIS YEAR -'H' X Mr j;-; ?' .f: X rXi ft.iV -vfr,r.x;': i ill Ir fx, , ' .U-I , i. tWWBBMBBBWnMHMW 7-: 4 ; 'i 4 t 5 r7lHAT dense fall of smoke which : " overhung vast areas of the United Atf ar(y autumn, and spread far out to sea', has cost the country close to $iootOOO,ooo, it is estimated. X. - ; -7 A?f aWr wjVw o fta; friendly -soil the ally that is our ultimate depend ence and must forever be our dependence . after all others shall fail, barren of hope of resurrection for long years to come. It robbed us of the waters that are- our other indispensable aid, and prepared the torrents which are pur overwhelming foes. opened the million paths by "which , those numberless' torrents of, the near fix ture': shall rob of their riches enormous - areas destined by nature to support whole y populations.' It set back 'civilization; withy all -itsimiiltiplyingwealthsp indefinitely over territories eaual to foreign kinrdomt; What has the nation to,learn from; this latest, most terrible consequence aty tending its Belshazzas feast, in which it . so riotously wastes its resources? t ' J i 'r.-, 1 Tririal ."appropriations, for .which the few J far-seeing tadyoca'tes .of proper tion' are , atrmng, would be f forest conserra- forthcoming with scarcely a day VdelavX ' , The careless tamper, the heedless farmer . burning ; brush, ' the- director of the railroad refusing, td provide 'due safeguards against en i gine sparks.'-the whole selfish leirion' of criini- ' nallj" negligent ; would be as , instantly f classed project could have been launched into practical utility, with its watersheds infinitely, better, con trolled than they can be after so many" million acres have been denuded of their forest nrotec' tion. ' - " ' ' , ' X Those, are estimates of the kind that Jeave their reader sitting as , calm and unmoved as when he learned that the Argentine is. produc ing more, cattle this year than- last. withXthe fewXwilful incendiaries ; whose actiri- ." But when it is tooted that this loss of il00 ';n .......1 ui-k - rinrrftnn ia thn Atreft loss of evprv mnn. wnman ties, in several. districts, have started fires , which. generations' of -care must go to make amends for.i and child in the land to be, felt now;, with butX : : little interval .X.X; . ) ' . .. .. - -, . put suffer a setback beyond repair; all construc tions into which lumber enters, frou rocking chairs to dwellings, cost ' more for occupancy and ownership. Onr very food supplies feel the costly effects of the long-protracted series of disasters. - t ' Officers of the United States Forest Serrwe, which has had its most able experts, on" the . ground, are agreed that it is doubtful whether 'the actual losses of this feapfully expensive yt:BLT will ever be known. But it is ajireftdy ap- ' ' p'awjnt that no part of the country escaped the devastation of the flames. ' ' Disasters which occurred ; in . Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin proved to be the worst that befell the lake states during the whole year. All the way from the" Pacific; coasand the Eocky mountain districts to the New Eng ' land states and Canada spring, summer and "early fall brought on a growing seriea of forest fires that culminated in what was really close to the conflagration of a continent. The estimate of Dr. W. J. McOee; - the ' erosion expert of the United s States ,Depart ment of Agriculture an estimate considered conservative by the . Forestry . . Bureau--place . the aggregate loss, in all parts of the 'country 1 during '-the months - of this year's conflagrations, , t at $1,000,OOQ a day. ' . X ' ' ' But the Forestry Service, as the fires of ibis fall were drawing to their destructive - close, estimated that the loss to the new growth alone was very nearly as much more, if the iotal , original losses were rated at $100,000,000. If it were not for the forest fires we could . expect an additional growth of twenty cubio feet per acre every year,- which, for a( ' total "forest area of approximately 500,000,000. acres,; ' would amount to 10,000,000,000 cubic feet That .:' equals 45,000,000,000 feet, board measure more ,X than the total consumption of saw timber- in the United States. ' X PERMANENT YEARLY LOSS , At $2 per 1000 feet, the new growth of ' timber not merely checked, hut utterly de stroyed for an indefinite period represents a -. permanent yearly loss of national income amounting to $90,000,000. For this year it is as yet impossible to count up accurately the" number of lives that have been sacrificed. The official count for the thirty years preceding this shows 195C victims, , or sixty-five lives annually. X The year 1903 will -bring, the average up appreciably.- . X The whole history of the nation has been one of a series, never really interrupted, of an- ' nual conflagrations in its forests. The census figures for 1880 gave the area burned per year of , 10,000,000 acres; but the Division of Forestry, . in 1891, ' collected records of 12.000,000 " acres burned over in a single year, with an estimate X of timber actually destroyed as amounting to V from $25,000,000. to $50,000,000. !1; , " Since then the value of "stumpage hat .. tiulti plied itself fivefold. " However much the ' yeirly waste of our woodlands may have been 'reduced in " board measure, the loss , in . values has enormously-increased, for, at the price of lumber today, 2,000,000 acres burned over how -. cost as much as 0,000,000 were worth in 1S80, "We have," sayiB. S. Kellogg, of the forest "" service,, "a forest area in. the United States that has been variously estimated at from 500, 000,000 to 700,000,000 acres. We are not sure .'which is correct, but it is probably the smaller estimate. The board foot measure of the tim ber standing onrthia acreage may range fro m 1,400,000,000,000 to 2,000,000,000,000 and agai a the smaller estiinate is probably. th; right -onw. ' We are using, annuajly, in ' the . torm , o t .T-FCTHfi XgreatlyX: preponderant. " irreatlv V. , I r iapatnetic majority ofl those 80,000,000 of' .'their neat two-story. homes-in the cities if all JL ur population, woo., saw noting of those . Iheee;, cheerfully indifferent -aouls, in company , . With; the - miffibns jso' wantonly eJWed to coraes-ut Ttemflofore.s1firexcept.th ness rnev mnaiv irrumDiea over, conici rm tmni. t . . ' . . - , i. v.. i n , . ' , i - v. - a ftorti frnm nWr 88?l ai,a "?ie 78lo'V C0J"? X C,B" mps couiu -nave wen pvem w.. - -1 lAlLJtXl'. all ihe other iten together.. sr - - - - w . a x wue ' iim run an iahwm e v. a o n a1 on(vi ni -- ti an nn n a jn m' a a ttma - niin mn lavira ' r iir i i i iNniius ui liirii. ur Livnu til wuiii ?eireleg?nt.e.d dweUings; from.ijew into a year foredoomed tOA bo ' equipped Wi th gullies instead -M"n: ' U of tnent auitei. and, from their-bigjactonca and . il!v be - (continued Ox insids pao;:. . i.. v- -i - . u.t Jf Ar.n mm rrn . j r-?? ihinvU -and lath. 3.000.000.000' feet:' la. cross . O fwrt nUI Anv, nr. V V. .. -. mm ...... -. . y- v. , . - . .ui. utvouj upud meir -minus. -l -,3 . r r- . pmMj , . - - , "7 , X ' ' X ' ' r - V-.""-V " . 'XX.'. '- '- . ;X X "; - V " X ) ;'. 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