this timber are rapidly being exhausted, and that, if no change takes place, exhaustion will come comparatively soon, and that the effects of it will be felt severely in the every-day life of our people.  Surely, when these facts are so obvious, there should be no delay in taking preventive measures.  Yet we seem as a nation to be willing to proceed in this matter with happy-go-lucky indifference even to the immediate future.  It is this attitude which permits the self-interest of a very few persons to weigh for more than the ultimate interest of all our people.  There are persons who find it to their immense pecuniary benefit to destroy the forests by lumbering.  They are to be blamed for thus sacrificing the future of the Nation as a whole to their own self-interest of the moment; but heavier blame attaches to the people at large for permitting such action, whether in the White Mountains, in the southern Alleghenies, or in the Rockies and Sierras.  A big lumbering company, impatient for immediate returns and not caring to look far enough ahead, will often deliberately destroy all the good timber in a region, hoping afterwards to move on to some new country.  The shiftless man of small means, who does not care to become an actual home-maker but would like immediate profit, will find it to his advantage to take up timber land simply to turn it over to such a big company, and leave it valueless for future settlers.  A big mine owner, anxious only to develop his mine at the moment, will care only to cut all the timber that he wishes without regard to the future—­probably net looking ahead to the condition of the country when the forests are exhausted, any more than he does to the condition when the mine is worked out.  I do not blame these men nearly as much as I blame the supine public opinion, the indifferent public opinion, which permits their action to go unchecked.  Of course to check the waste of timber means that there must be on the part of the public the acceptance of a temporary restriction in the lavish use of the timber, in order to prevent the total loss of this use in the future.  There are plenty of men in public and private life who actually advocate the continuance of the present system of unchecked and wasteful extravagance, using as an argument the fact that to check it will of course mean interference with the ease and comfort of certain people who now get lumber at less cost than they ought to pay, at the expense of the future generations.  Some of these persons actually demand that the present forest reserves be thrown open to destruction, because, forsooth, they think that thereby the price of lumber could be put down again for two or three or more years.  Their attitude is precisely like that of an agitator protesting against the outlay of money by farmers on manure and in taking care of their farms generally.  Undoubtedly, if the average farmer were content absolutely to ruin his farm, he could for two or three years avoid spending any money on it, and yet make a good deal