Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/187

From Youth to Age as an American. 169 of the conditions of the gift, there will be no lack of bidders for timber lands, and no lack of care in their management. The ten years' experience in the introduction of a body of specialists as trained foresters to utilize and care for the public forested lands has not as yet borne fruits of demon- stration that the people want a class of teachers in the management of forest property. What has been done by Congress to meet the change of conditions demanding the care of instead of the destruction of timber has been done with disregard to the relations of the nation to the mountain States; a ruthlessness toward the poor and the ignorant of the frontier people which has resulted in some plainly written signs that might cause a judicious statesman to hesitate be- fore filling the forested public lands that have been utterly uncared for for a hundred years with human hounds, and treating men whose fathers were paid by liberal gifts of land for coming and ordaining law and maintaining order in Ore- gon, as though they were the lowest of the human race. Mr. Pinchot, whose zeal and skill in organization cannot be ques- tioned, has acknowledged that mistakes have been made. That is true; and the gain of Canada of more than 250,000 of the home-building class of American citizens outside of cities and suburban additions, bears witness to the fact that what I claim is true : that the effort to found a forest policy, which was much needed ten years ago, was started where it was, and is, yet least needed. Canada has gained one million population from the United States, her publicists think, since Great Britain gave her more liberty over her own develop- ment. It is not asserted here that her imitation of the home- stead policy of the United States in Manitoba and Alberta has been the sole cause of the partial arrest of development on our side of the line since the proclamation of forest reserves began, and the wheat lands of Canada are very far from re- ceiving all we have lost since we gave the forester power to annoy and contradict United States Senators, and sell forest products in competition with private citizens. British Col- umbia forests have been receiving both capital and labor