arson leads to the penitentiary. A forest fire may destroy millions and
the cause not even be investigated. If, aggravated by a particularly
inexcusable case of malice or carelessness, some property holder
(seldom the people) secures an arrest, acquittal is practically
certain because the community considers the matter none of its
business. Then the value of the fire law is at an end in that region.
Certainly we cannot expect the timber owner to protect our forest
interests until we ourselves respect and at least attempt to enforce
our forest laws.

PATROL SERVICE ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL

But necessary as is better public sentiment, we must also have
practical machinery for enforcing the laws and for stopping the fires
that do start. Just as a city is safeguarded best by an organized
fire department, so the forest can be protected effectively only by
trained men who know the work. And the man who prevents the most
fires is the man who is looking for them, not the man who goes
after the fire is under way.

Theodore Roosevelt says: "I hold as first among the tasks before
the states and the nation in their respective shares in forest
conservation the organization of efficient fire patrols and the
enactment of good fire laws on the part of the states."

The National Conservation Commission reports: "Each state within
whose boundaries forest fires are working grave injury, and that
means every forest state, must face the fact squarely that to keep
down forest fires needs not merely a law upon the statute books,
but an effective force of men actually on the ground to patrol