e neither excuse nor incentive for
failing to conform to them.

In this cooeperation the people should not be expected to grant
privileges which are not for their own advantage also. Nor should
they hesitate to cooeperate if it is to their advantage, merely
because it is also a help to the lumberman. It is natural that the
public should disincline to assume any further burden to enrich the
timber owner. Were this the sale object of forest protection it would
be fair to leave it to him. But it is the height of bad economy to
obstruct or refuse to help him in handling forest resources to our
best advantage. Whether he gains or loses is merely incidental to
us, but whether we gain or lose is of very great importance.

FIRST STEP IS TO STOP FOREST FIRES

Obviously reduction of the forest fire hazard is the most urgent
problem. Not only is fire the greatest destroyer of existing forests,
but it also discourages investment in reforestation. The public has
a right to expect the lumberman to adopt every safeguard against
it in his operations. Nevertheless, the first step to encourage
him in this is to reduce the appalling carelessness with fire in
which the people of the West are the worst offenders in the world
today.

Forest fires are almost always unnecessary. They usually result
from a neglect of consideration for injury and distress to others
which is not shown by the American people in any other connection.
The traveler or resident in forest regions simply fails to realize
that his own welfare and that of countless others requires the
same precaution not to let fire escape, and the same activity in
extinguishing fires he discovers, that are accorded as a matter
of course in cities and towns. In reality they are more important.
A San Francisco can burn down and it is soon replaced. Insurance
and capital come to the rescue, labor is employed, and business
is resumed. _But when the forest burns, industry dies and labor is
driven away empty handed._ It is a big price to pay for neglecting
the slight effort required to prevent it.

Fairly good fire laws are on our statute books. Presumably they
were intended to prevent fires. Yet almost every forest community
sees fire after fire set through ignorance, carelessness or purpose,
and so far from punishing the offenders accords them every privilege
of business and society. In cities, however insignificant the damage,
arson leads to the penitentiary. A forest fire may destro