THE ANGLER'S PRAYER--SAVE THE WOODS AND WATERS
"Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business is only to be
sustained by perpetual neglect of other things. And it is not by any
means certain that a man's business is the most important thing he has
to do."
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
Commerce or civilization or whatever you like to call modern man's
accumulation of money wealth at the sacrifice of nature is perpetrated
with no greater force than in the wanton waste of our forests--the
trees given by God to the people and stolen from the people by
individuals. It seems all right for man to prudently use our forests
in the making of homes and other practical things of actual necessity,
but it is a downright shame that the people allow greedy men to
destroy the trees for the mere sake of adding dollars to the
destroyers' already well-filled purses. And these selfish men even
deprive the people of their breathing-air, drinking-water, and fish
food. Springs, ponds, and brooks are dried up by the loss of
sheltering foliage. Lakes and rivers are ruined by the commercial
gentry's waste acid, dye, oil, gas, etc., and the very air we breathe
is poisoned by the fumes of the money-makers' chimneys.
The railroads cut down the people's trees to make ties, and they burn
the old ties instead of consuming them for steam power or giving them
back to the people for fuel or fence posts, etc. The mill owner burns
as rubbish the sawdust and slabs instead of burying the sawdust and
allowing it to turn into loam that would enrich the soil and thereby
propagate vegetable food matter and the very tree life the millman
wastes. He is not only destroying the material on hand but he is doing
his best to prevent the growth of future material. Slabs should not be
burned as waste matter; they are good fuel and good material for the
farmer, _et al._
Nothing should be burned as waste matter; nature tells us to bury, not
burn. Fire destroys not alone the valuable ingredient it consumes to
make itself, but burns up the earth's vital moisture--the life-giving
oxygen we breathe, without which no animate thing could survive.
Before fresh timber is cut for market-cornering purposes, the millmen
should be compelled to use up the vast rafts of trees they have
allowed to float upon river banks, there to rot while the choppers
continue their attack on new trees, half of which will go to waste
with the lumberman's already-decaying market-cornering mess in the
flooded valley.
Anyone may personally witness this wanton waste if so inclined: Take a
ride on the railroad between Portland, Oregon, and Tacoma, Washington,
and note the conditions _en route_; or glance out of the car window as
you ride through the timberland district in the Southern
states--Alabama, Georgia, etc.
Oregon and Washington are bragging about what the native biped
conceitedly calls enterprise, western spirit, progress, prosperity,
etc. Poor fools! They imagine the so-called prosperity is due to the
enterprise or spirit of themselves, while any nature student could
tell them that the business success of any territory is directly due
to that territory's material that is marketed, and that as soon as the
marketable material is used up the so-called enterprise, energy,
spirit, etc., of the ego-marketman go up with it.
In Michigan (Bay City) thirty-five years ago the wasters used to boast
that Bay City was going to outrival New York City in size, intellect,
money wealth, social standing, etc., in a few years. All this on a
little timber they were cutting and selling. It was remarked by a
nature student that the success of their ambition depended upon the
pine trees they were gradually consuming--ruthlessly cutting down to
extermination--and a practical man suggested that they plant and
propagate as well as cut and consume. Also it was hinted that the
lumber they made out of the trees was the only thing they had to make
possible the social downfall of New York.
"Oh, by no means," they said; "we have enterprise and spirit; that's
what counts."
But, the count was a failure--the trees giving out. Northern Michigan
was turned into a sugar-beet farm, and most of the unfortunates who
counted on making Bay City outrival New York are now of the very dust
that nurtures the present-day material that their offspring exists
upon.
The Michigan enterprise, spirit, etc., is now transferred to the few
other timberland States, and the natives of to-day, the early day of
plenty, are just like the old conceited Michiganders--they foolishly
imagine the financial success of their territory is due to so-called
personal energy, pride, enterprise, progress, etc., on the part of
themselves, when any naturalist knows that their prosperity is
directly due to God's bountifulness--the abundance of marketable
material--not man's effort or egotism.
When Oregon and Washington have lumbered all their timber the
"enterprising" natives will not have rivaled New York socially or
financially any more than the Michigander has accomplished this end;
Oregon and Washington, without timber, like Michigan, will stay just
where they are--if lucky enough not to go lower down in the social and
financial standard--when their marketable material is exhausted.
Climate is a mere matter of pure air. What's the good in climate if
it's smoked and burned? Any clean climate, hot or cold, is better than
any soiled climate, hot or cold.
Marketable material, pure air, and pure water are the three big
concerns of life; man isn't worthy of being included in the list of
important things because he destroys these three mighty essentials.
Material makes man more than man makes material.
Man's energy and egotism couldn't get a footing without marketable
material. What the world needs is less of vain man and more plain
market stuff.
Save the woods and waters.