APPALACHIAN NATIONAL FOREST ASSOCIATION 



547 



Mr. Henry W. Wood the vice-presi- 

 dent of tlie Chamber, presided, and elo- 

 quently presented the subjects and the 

 speakers, Mr. F. G. Plummer, and Mr. 

 John H. Finney. The subjects chosen 

 by the speakers were the same as in 

 Lynchburg, and were ably handled, to 

 the enjoyment of the select audience 

 present. 



The papers had given much space to 

 the meeting, and strong editorial com- 

 ment made both before and after 

 the lectures on the importance of the 

 subject. 



Among the audience, was Congress- 

 man John Lamb, a member of the Agri- 

 cultural Committee of the House of 

 Representatives, who briefly followed 

 Mr. Finney in a speech which severely 

 "roasted" Speaker Cannon, declaring 

 that the movement for the acquisition 

 of the Appalachians had been blocked 

 by his committee appointments. "Uncle 

 Joe did it,"' he declared, "but the time 

 will come when he won't be there.'" 

 Captain Lamb strongly endorsed the 

 speeches of Mr. Plummer and Mr. Fin- 

 ney, reminding his hearers that the 

 work was not only one for the present, 

 but for the good of posterity. 



Resolutions were unanimously adopt- 

 ed endorsing the Association and pledg- 

 ing to its aid the Chamber of Com- 

 merce, Business Men's Club, Woman's 

 Club, the Civic Improvement League, 

 and the Traveler's Protective Associa- 

 tion. 



The Association has planned similar 

 meetings, probably handled by the same 

 speakers, at Danville and Roanoke, Va. ; 



Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Greens- 

 boro and other North Carolina points ; 

 Rome and Athens, Ga. ; Montgomery, 

 Ala., etc., and is almost daily in receipt 

 of requests for speakers. 



It is naturally a tremendous work, 

 one that we feel we must continue ; but 

 it is work that must have, to be success- 

 ful, the individual conscience of our 

 membership. We feel that the in- 

 fluences which these meetings are en- 

 listing and setting in motion are to re- 

 sult in large consequences — for the 

 good of the whole Nation. We are be- 

 ginning, as a people, to miderstand the 

 need of the forests and the vital con- 

 cern of the individual in their proper 

 conservation. Such costly object-les- 

 sons as the recent floods in the South ; 

 the present costly forest fires in all sec- 

 tions of the country ; the existing 

 drought conditions in Pennsylvania 

 and adjoining states, vividly portray 

 the future of 'America without its for- 

 ests, and tell the story, appalling though 

 it be, more eloquently and more forcibly 

 than any words of ours. 



Once get the thinking man or wom- 

 an educated to real conditions and to 

 the necessity of work oh his or her 

 part, and the blind indifference of Con- 

 gress and the opposition of the Speaker 

 and his committees will be swept aside 

 with a force which cannot be gainsaid, 

 and the forests shall be saved. 



We are, indeed, "pledged to the For- 

 est Cause." 



The Appalachian National 

 Forest Association. 



