and he has to pay all the taxes, as well as a higher price for his
buildings, fences and fruit boxes. Every acre of timber burned
or wasted hastens this day._

The conservation thus suggested does not mean non-use of ripe timber,
but does mean protecting it from useless waste and destruction,
and replacing it by reforestation when it is used.

CONDITIONS OF LIFE THE REAL ISSUE INVOLVED

Lack of space forbids recounting many other ways in which the forest
question touches the average citizen. It enters into our prospects
of development, our investment values and our insurance rates. Like
the keystone of an arch, or the link of a chain, forests cannot
be destroyed without the collapse of the entire fabric. Their
preservation is not primarily a property question, but a principle
of public economy, dealing with one of the elements of human existence
and progress. _Failure to treat it as such means harder conditions
of life, a handicap of industry; not only for our children, but
for us as well._

It all sums up to this: On every acre of western forest destroyed
by fire, or that fails to grow where it might grow, _we, the citizens
of the West who are not lumbermen, bear fully eighty per cent of
the direct loss_ and sustain serious further injury to our general
safety and profit.

HOW WE THROW AWAY MILLIONS

Notwithstanding the above facts, we allow $40,000,000 which we and