PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE OF FOREST ECONOMICS 



59 



human action depends partly upon the 

 extent of desire for tliis result but more 

 upon the extent of knowledge how to 

 achieve it. We are trying to do as a 

 minority what in its very nature must 

 be an expression of the majority. We 

 tell the average citizen it is his problem, 

 that we have solved it for him, and that 

 he should support the project. We are 

 wrong. JVc cannot solve it or reduce 

 it to a mere supportable project. We 

 can give him the facts, but he must 

 solve it by studying the relation of his 

 conduct and the community's to his own 

 welfare and then acting accordingly 

 Then, and only then, will Congress, 

 legislatures, lumbermen, foresters and 

 public be able to work together as they 

 must work together, knowing that their 

 policies are sound and commended, that 

 success will be rewarded, and that fail- 

 ure will be punished. 



We talk and write a great deal about 

 methods, as though all that is neces- 

 sary is to make foresters proficient and 

 lumbermen interested. This is all right 

 enough, but what is most needed is 

 permission to apply what we already 

 know. Knowledge and interest are far 

 ahead of opportunity. Success depends 

 chiefly upon having conditions under 

 which they are encouraged. With such 

 conditions you couldn't stop it if you 

 tried. 



Let us return to our average citizen 

 who with his fellows constitute the ma- 

 jority of our population. Suppose that 

 in his home town, where community re- 

 lations are so closely under his eye that 

 they are familiar and clear to him, a 

 single industry employs a large pro- 

 portion of the population, produces the 

 chief share of all manufactured prod- 

 ucts, and pays an essential part of the 

 taxes. Let us say it is fruit-growing, 

 or dairying, or furniture making. This 

 citizen would not think twice before 

 conceding its necessity. Anything 

 threatening its discontinuance would be 

 a menace to be fought vigorously ; any- 

 thing promising to increase it would be 

 encouraged. Town officials, chamber 

 of commerce, citizens — all would work 

 and spend in earnest for its continu- 

 ance and development just as you have 

 seen them do often when occasion of- 



fered to promote enterprises of com- 

 munity advantages. No one in public 

 life would dare do otherwise. 



Moreover, they would know how. 

 If it were a dairy community its aver- 

 age citizen would know pretty well what 

 production costs, what prices are nec- 

 essary, what improvements are feasible, 

 what the State can and should do to aid 

 and regulate, what public demands are 

 reasonable and what are unreasonable. 



The relation of forest industry to the 

 State or nation is exactly that of our 

 illustrative industry to our suppositious 

 town and so is its relation to every 

 citizen. Lumbering is one of the three 

 or four greatest American industries — 

 it is our greatest manufacturing indus- 

 try — and forest products are used in 

 almost every other besides being prac- 

 tically life essentials. Certainly it is 

 second in usefulness to none except 

 agriculture, and this would fare ill with- 

 out its aid in many ways. The only 

 reason the average citizen does not real- 

 ize this and give it the same active and 

 intelligent interest that he gives home 

 town problems is that he cannot see it 

 so clearly. The very immensity and 

 importance of the industry causes its 

 several processes of growing, manufac- 

 turing and distributing to be conducted 

 separately and thus confuses the pub- 

 lic mind. Different communities see 

 different parts of the process and get 

 no thorough grasp of forest economics. 



In many a little German village the 

 whole community sees the forest grown, 

 cut, manufactured and used. Those 

 who do not actually participate, serve 

 or supply those who do. All use the 

 crop or profit by what is sold elsewhere. 

 There forestry needs no propaganda. 

 The people could not understand the 

 need of it, any more than of propa- 

 ganda for raising wheat and making 

 l>rpad. Yet their situation is really no 

 different — it is only more concentrated. 

 Mere, too, forest industry is an entity. 

 Man needs wood in various forms. To 

 make the earth supply it, employing 

 such labor as is required to make it 

 ''uitable and available for his use, is a 

 business. Its permanence and serv- 

 ice to the community ; supplying the 

 consumer, employing labor, using sup- 



