Conservation.-One-quarter of the United States is still covered with forests, but it is estimated that if we go on cutting as wastefully as we have and make no provision for reforestation or other care our forests will be entirely cut down in fifty years. This shows how recklessly we have been using our natural resources, and why our new national conservation policy is so important. Under it more than one-third of our forest acreage has been placed in the forest reserves of the government in charge of the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. Forest rangers patrol these areas, prevent cutting except according to the rules of careful forestry, extinguish fires, and guard against them by building firebreaks along the crests of ranges, and direct reforestation. The whole country benefits by this foresight and watchful care.

The principles of conservation include also the development of our vast water-power, so as to avoid monopoly and furnish power to as many citizens as possible.

Labor. The Department of Labor studies the labor problems and labor laws of the several States and of the world, and publishes reports upon them.

The regulation of labor in factories so as to protect workers from injury and disease rests chiefly with the State governments, since the national power of regulation is restricted to interstate commerce. National laws have been passed limiting the hours of trainmen and telegraphers employed in interstate business, and a workman's compensation law applying to railroads engaged in interstate commerce has also been enacted.

ARROWROCK DAM, THE HIGHEST IN THE WORLD, NEAR BOISE, IDAHO

This law gives every such workman, if injured while at work, a certain fixed sum, graded according to the extent of the injury; or if he is killed a fixed sum must be paid his family. The national government has also attempted to prevent child labor on goods entering interstate commerce.

The Protective Tariff.—One of the great political issues throughout the history of the nation has been "protection." A small tariff (a customs duty) upon goods from foreign countries operates merely as a tax to produce revenue. Protection means imposing a tariff so large that foreign goods cannot be profitably imported, thus protecting American industries from foreign competition. The Republican party has argued that only thus could manufacturing be developed and maintained and labor paid its present wages, since wages are higher in America than elsewhere, and it is therefore not possible to produce goods as cheaply here as elsewhere. It has contended that protection benefited laborer and manufacturer alike. The Democratic party has argued that the country would be better off if it could buy foreign-made goods cheaply and let only such manufacturing develop as would develop naturally. The Democratic party has therefore stood for free trade (that is, no tariff) or a tariff for revenue only.

The decision of this question is one of the many political issues that you will have to vote upon and help decide. Whatever its merits, however, whichever side is right, the country long had a highly protective tariff and still has a protective tariff. The result has been to stimulate manufacturing tremendously and the

protective tariff must be classed as one of the many means our national government has used to develop the nation.

The Control of Trusts. One of the most serious problems in preserving fair play in American life has been raised by the growth of huge businesses called trusts or combinations. The old theory of our business life was that every bright and energetic young man could start out for himself as an independent manufacturer or dealer. Competition among these small concerns both gave free play for ability to show itself and also kept prices down for the public that bought. In many lines this condition still exists. But in some, meat packing, for instance, the small concerns have all been merged into a few and these large corporations control the field. These conditions shut out the small beginner and permit an unfair raising of prices since competition is largely ended. Such single control of any one line is called a monopoly.

To secure a return of fair play, both for the small business man and for the public, the nation has passed a number of laws, the chief being the Sherman Anti-trust Law of 1890. Under this law great trusts, like the Standard Oil and the tobacco companies, were split up by the courts into their original small concerns. In 1914 this was supplemented by the Clayton Act, defining what "unfair trade methods" are and creating a Federal Trade Commission to enforce the law.

The problem is a very difficult one, and there has been much disagreement as to what remedy should be used. There is no question that combinations can