588 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



of citizens we can do and say what 

 Government officials cannot do and say. 



Our program embodies : 



(i) An equitable system of taxa- 

 tion which shall not unduly burden the 

 growing crop. 



(2) Adequate protection against fire, 

 which will reduce this greatest of forest 

 perils to a minimum. 



(3) The practice of scientific man- 

 agement upon all existing forests. 



(4) The planting of all unoccupied 

 lands which can be utilized more profi- 

 tably for forestry than for any other 

 purpose. 



(5) The whole to be brought about 

 through harmonious adjustment of func- 

 tions between the three classes of own- 

 ers — national, state, and private. We 

 do not believe that either one of these 

 agencies is to be relied upon alone. 

 Each has its place. I say this because 



♦ our position in this regard is often mis- 

 conceived. I may add to correct 

 another misapprehension that we do not 

 believe in putting under forest land 

 that is more valuable for agriculture. 

 Forestry and agriculture are not rivals. 

 They go hand in hand. 



One specific object to which we have 

 given much effort for several years is 

 the establishment of national forests on 

 the great interstate water-sheds of the 

 Northern and Southern Appalachians. 

 The conditions which are acute for the 

 thickly populated East can only be 

 handled by the united action of the na- 

 tional and state governments and pri- 

 vate owners. The central cores of the 

 White Mountains and the Southern Ap- 



palachians clearly require national care 

 and management. With this and co- 

 operation of the states and private 

 owners with the national government, 

 we can save a rare country of beauty, 

 health, and productiveness from bemg 

 made a depopulated waste. We begin 

 to see the light. In the House of the 

 last two Congresses we have passed a 

 bill, after fighting to a finish the reac- 

 tionary element which has controlled 

 that body and throttled legislation in 

 the public interest. In the Senate we 

 have a strong working majority which 

 can only be beaten, as in the Sixtieth 

 and Sixty-first Congresses, by filibuster- 

 ing in the last hours of the session. If 

 we are not cheated of our reward next 

 winter we shall make a new step in the 

 progress of American forestry by mak- 

 ing the national forest system really 

 national. 



W'e look forward confidently to a fu- 

 ture in which the practice of scientific 

 forestry will become general through- 

 out the United States, when our forest 

 lands will be clearly defined and per- 

 manently maintained in productive 

 growth, when waste lands will cease to 

 play so large a part in our national 

 statistics, when the production of the 

 forests will cease to be so much less 

 than the consumption of forest pro- 

 ducts, and the national wealth will be 

 contributed to largely each year from 

 this source. But even with this hope- 

 ful outlook we cannot see that our work 

 will ever be done, and we welcome the 

 assistance which this conservation cong- 

 ress can give us. 



(^^^ 



