'Cbe Conservative *
PEACE. Evoiy father and
mother in the United States who has a
son in the army invading Cuba , in the
West Indies or with the command of
General Merritt among the Philippines
will rejoice at returning peace.
Brothers , sisters , sweethearts of the
patriotic boys in blue will everywhere
thank God that peace is assured !
Cicero said : "Peace is liberty in
tranquillity. " A" modern civilization ,
in its right * % , nolds that peace is the
happy natural state of the humanity of
the XIX centiiry and that war is its
wretchedness and degradation.
To make one corpse is murder and to
make myriads of corpses is not glory.
The contentious and slaughterings
earned on by savages in a state of abso
lute barbarism are condemned by civil
ized men and women. How can they
then applaud those tremendous contests
in the butchery of human beings which
are euphemistically termed battlefields.
How can they applaud these interna
tional expositions of the art of murder
by improved machinery ?
EXAMPLES AND The young and
ASSOCIATIONS. the old alike are
exalted and inspired by the study of the
lives of illustrious men. The history of
the world is only the biography of the
light-giving souls in each age. Plutarch
more than seventeen hundred years ago
wrote of the great personalities which
had even then illumined the world's
progress and been merged into the dark
ness of the past. And when Plutarch
had finished his task as to those who
had lived illustriously in the times
which he depicted he wrote : "I under
took this work for the benefit of others ,
but I have continued and completed it
for niy own personal benefit. Gazing
as it were into the mirror of history , I
have been forced to conform my own
life as best I could to so many beautiful
examples. "
Tims is it shown that the records of
useful and noble men and women trans
mit firm resolve and moral vigor to their
substitutes in that great army of hu
manity which is constantly on the march
from a beginning to the end of a life.
Human existence is so short that it
could be neither useful nor enjoyable if
one could not strenuously labor to ad
vance and elevate his fellow man. The
inspiration of lofty exemplars in the
annals of the world evolves heroism
oven out of mediocrity and also develops
strength where weakness is inherent.
On the other hand associations with
base comrades , and affiliations with the
vicious , deform and dwarf even the best
and largest minds. But to develop
good mental and moral character youth
should study the lives of the useful , the
good and great of other ages , and con
sort only with the decent , the intelligent
and the practical of the present ; exam-
plars and associates tend to either buili
up and ennoble or to tear down and
debase.
( From Prof. Charles S. Sargent , Direc
tor of ( he Arnold Arboretum. Har
vard University and Special Agent in
Charge of Forestry Statistics in the U.
S. Census. North American Review. )
TIIE PROTECTION Forest prcscrva-
OP FORESTS. tion , as a national
question , must soon occupy public at
tention. The problem involved is one
of grave import , and its solution is not
easy and cannot bo immediate. The
part taken by the forest iu the economy
of nature , and its relations to the wants
of man , are complex , and the American
people are still ignorant , not only of
what a forest is , but of the actual con
dition of their own forests , and of the
dangers which threaten them. The fu
ture prosperity and development of the
country , however , are so largely depen
dent upon the preservation of the forest
that these lessons will in time be learned ,
although , judging from the experience
of other countries , they will 1 > Q learned
only at the cost of calamities which a
better understanding of the subject
might perhaps have averted.
# * * * * * # *
Fatal inroads have already been made
into the great pine forest of the North
Atlantic region. Its wealth has been
lavished with an unsparing hand ; it has
been wantonly and stupidly cut , as if
its resources were endless ; what has not
been sacrificed to the axe has been al
lowed to perish by fire. The pine of
New England and New York has al
ready disappeared. Pennsylvania is
nearly stripped of her pine , which only
a few years ago appeared inexhaustible.
The great northwestern pine states ,
Michigan , Wisconsin , and Minnesota ,
can show only a few scattered remnants
of the noble forests to which they owe
their greatest prosperity , and which not
even self-interest has saved from need
less destruction.
The belt of red-wood forest along the
California coast has already suffered
severely at the hands of the lumberman ,
and many of its finest and most accessi
ble trees have already been removed. A
large amount of this valuable timber is
still standing less , however , than has
generally been supposed ; and at the
present rate of consumption the com
mercial importance of this forest will
have disappeared at the end of a few
years more.
* * * * * * * *
In Professor Sargent's paper , read be
fore tJie Massachusetts State Jioard of
Agriculture , the following important
statement respecting the white pine is
made :
The entire supply ( white pine ) grow
ing in the United States and ready for
the axe , does not today , greatly , if at
allexceed 80,000,000,000 feet , and this es
timate includes the small and inferior
trees , which a few years no , would not
have been considered worth counting.
,
> t
The annual production of tliis lumber ,
s not far from 10,000,000,000 feot.and the
leinand is constantly and rapidly in
creasing.
The publication of these facts a few
months ago has greatly increased , and
in some cases more than doubled the
value of pine lands ; and it does not re
quire any particular powers of foresight
; o bo able to predict that the price
must advance to still higher figures.
Enough is now known to permit the
positive statement that no great unex
plored body of this pine remains ; and
that with the exception of the narrow
red-wood belt of the California coast ,
no North American forest can yield in
quantity any substitute for it.
GRATITUDE FOll TllO 81111111101" is *
TIIE HARVEST. going swiftly. It
has been _ a bewildering magician in Ne
braska. With deftness it has im'xcd the
shiuo of the sun , the downpour of the
rain , and the fall of the dew with the
fertile fields through which labor has * .
pushed its plows. The result is com
pensatory. Wheat twenty to thirty- * ,
five bushels , oats forty to sixty-five an /
aero ; and corn , which has been well
tilled , promising forty to seventy-five.
"Every prospect pleases and only man
is vile , " in places , and in partisan poli
tics. Thus ingratitude to God is expressed -
pressed in the wails of populistic plat
forms , and the puny legislative enact
ments of man are invoked to rectify the
alleged mistakes of Providence. In
time eternal salvation will bo sought by
the "Bo it enacted" of populistic legis
latures.
Hon. John F. Kinney , the first chief
justice of the great state of Iowa and
now a resident of the prosperous and
progressive city of San Diego , Califor
nia , is visiting his daughter , Mrs. J. S.
Ware , at her attractive home adjacent
to Nebraska City. The judge hopes to
view the exposition at Omaha before re
turning to his Pacific home. Few men
now living have seen Western develop
ment and its wonders in the Transmis-
sissippi country for a term of more than
fifty years ; but Judge Kiiiuoy has that
distinction , for he settled in Iowa during
1844.
Judge Kinuey's legal acquirements
and native ability made a strong and
commanding citizen. His influence for
good in Iowa , Nebraska , Utah and Cal
ifornia has been constant during a
whole half century. And now , at
eighty-two years of age , ho may truth
fully say relative to the wars of civiliz
ation against barbarism 011 these plains
what JEneas said of those of Troy :
"Magna pars.fni. '
Mr. A. B. Hepburn's address before
the State Bankers' Association draws at
tention to one of the crying and appar
ently incorrigible evils of our time the
pardoning of bank defaulters and bank
robbers by governors of states and by
'
