Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/403

Rh question be a difficult undertaking to change the civic spirit of the inhabitants of the South Appalachian Mountains, and lead them to seek peace and honor in the culture, care and harvesting of forest resources, in any other way than by appeal to civic pride, where so many of them have either depended on occasional wage labor and the small game yet remaining in their bush-covered surroundings, or the cultivation of their rough little fields of corn, as breadstuff or as the basis of illicit distillation. It cannot and should not be attempted at public cost, without the good will of the people who have their homes in that region.

In advocating an American system of forestry, in distinction from the German system which the present Chief Forester began with and has clung to as much as the American spirit of men and institutions will permit, I am aware that the present population of the Appalachian Mountains may, perhaps will be, the greatest obstacle in the way of success, unless the improvement of their condition is made a first object in the plan. In some of his best papers in advocacy of a national forest policy, President Roosevelt has stated his conviction that "No policy will succeed unless it has the endorsement of the people;" in the judgment of the writer, that is most true in regard to the people who inhabit the South Appalachian Mountains. They are, or were, a "mighty poor," but also a "mighty proud" people; but, treated right, they are a mighty potent people; as the winning of Oregon proved; in which national drama they furnished by far the greatest contingent, by about three to one, when the Oregon boundary was agreed on. Their camp-fire war stories were all located in the Southern States—Florida, Louisiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. As reasons for reforesting the Appalachian Mountains, the President accompanied his message to Congress with a finely bound volume of maps, plates, and letter-press descriptions of the erosions made by copious rainfall in different localities on this chain of mountains, as the result of destruction of forest cover by over-cutting for homes or by forest fires. In support of the President's recommenda-