HARDWOOD RECORD 



29 



a fund provided for the use of the commission. 



There is no legislation sought for regulating 

 or proposing to reguliite the size of trees that 

 shall be cut. The market will do this. Often 

 a small tree is worth more in dollars than one 

 of the same iiind that is larger. Various re- 

 quirements demand different size trees. A small 

 Iree is sooner reproduced. Cut for the market 

 regardless of size, plant, conserve and grow 

 again. This proposed legislation is not offered 

 with the belief that it fills all requirements or 

 that it is most wisely drawn. It has been 

 hastily prepared and is offered as food for in- 

 telligent thought. 



Now, there is another very important con- 

 tributing factor coordinating in price conditions 

 and affecting values, whicli we must consider. 

 Value is not determined by cost of production 

 alone, if it has in competition a commodity that 

 serves as a good substitute ; but with no sub- 

 stitute and where the cost of production is as 

 certain and as nearly uniform as it is with 

 lumber there should be little trouble to main- 

 tain such a uniform price as would prevent 

 waste. 



Consideration of Substitutes 



Steel and concrete are substitutes for some 

 purposes. We can never raise trees at a cost 

 to take the place of steel and cement in many 

 modern structural buildings and bridges ; and if 

 it is true that at a price less than the cost of 

 growing trees, these and other substitutes of 

 brick, stone, paper, composite board, etc., will 

 come in to successfully prevent lumbermen get- 

 ting cost for their product, including this tree 

 cost, then forestry is doomed unless new uses 

 are found for wood. If as good a substitute 

 can be produced for less money, we might as 

 well cut our present forests while we can. Fu- 

 ture generations will not need them because 

 of the better and cheaper substitutes. Forestry 

 will then mean only the care of trees on the 

 game preserves ; in national, public and private 

 parks : on lawns and by the roadsides, along the 

 watersheds, and at the sources of rivers and 

 itreams ; but if more than this is to be required 

 of us, and commercial woods are to be grown, 

 it is very evident that they must bring the cost 

 of growth, for timber will not be grown for a 

 irofit unless it brings a profit, and it will not 

 be grown at all except for profit unless by the 

 nation at the expense of the public, which will 

 be no saving in the end. 



Now, it is the belief of scientific foresters and 

 of students of conservation the world over that 

 there can be no substitutes for general uses for 

 v.'hich wood is now required that can be fur- 

 nished below cost and a reasonable profit for 

 growing trees ; yet they all agree that the indi- 

 vidual needs protection and help by the state in 

 the way of lessening of taxes, which will lessen 

 the haste of cutting forest trees. The slogan 

 should be, "Let the tax follow the saw." In all 

 things the consumer pays the taxes, and we are 

 all consumers, so we help pay each other's taxes. 

 No tax of any kind should be paid on timber or 

 on timberland until the trees are manufactured 

 into lumber. It will then not make so much 

 difference what the tax is. as it will be added 

 lo the cost, the same as are taxes in other prod- 

 ucts always regarded as a part of the cost there- 

 of. With no taxes to be paid until the timber 

 is cut the owner has some inducement to protect 

 and foster growth and run the risks of storms, 

 diseases and other dangers. 



National wealth is not rightly measured by 

 the balance in the treasury or by money in 

 bank to the credit of its citizens. It is mbre 

 correctly represented by the available raw ma- 

 terials within the nation's boundaries. Their 

 development calls for labor, and labor becomes 

 an ally and an important added source of 

 wealth. The cost of reproducing such raw ma- 

 terials as can be re[)roduced includes the labor 

 and fixes the price. 



Such commodities as cannot be reproduced, 

 like coal, oil and natural gas, where the supply 



is not in sight, estimates are made from such 

 scientific geological data as is available, and the 

 probable supply lor decades of years is consid- 

 ered ; but the price is most altogether influenced 

 by its competitive substitutes, as, for instance, 

 in certain localities coal displaces wood : coal 

 oil displaces sperm oil and tallow for liglits : 

 manufactured gas displaces coal oil ; natural gas 

 displaces manufactured gas. and cheap water 

 power, in favorable localities, displaces them 

 all. It produces electricity, which produces heat, 

 light and commercial power at a cost such as 

 drives the others out of all competition. 



So far, and in such instances as lumber has a 

 good substitute, will the price be affected by the 

 cost of that substitute ; and it may, for a short 

 time, thereby be kept at a price below the cost 

 of reproduction ; but it cannot long so remain, 

 lor it will not be reproduced at a loss. Yet 

 what are we lumbermen now doing? We are in 

 lace of a great demand and a constantly de- 

 creasing supply of raw material for which there 

 is no good suificient substitute, ruinously and 

 wastefully manutacluring more than the market 

 demands and at prices far less than the cost of 

 reproduction. 



Forest Trees for Future Supply 



In the wise economy of growth and selection 

 of forest trees for future supply, trees of rapid 

 growth and those superior in quality will largely 

 take the place of those of inferior quality, all 

 requirements and conditions of soil and location 

 being equal. Some species may become almost 

 extinct for commercial woods. For example, 

 hemlock may give way to white pine of more 

 rapid growth, certain species of oak will dis- 

 place those of inferior quality. Wise economy 

 demands and justice requires that we secure a 

 maximum of value at a minimum of cost, and 

 that the selling price shall not be exorbitant. 



We are entitled to natural advance of raw ma- 

 terial which our foresight enabled us to take 

 advantage of, and it is none the less vaiuatiie 

 because we bought stumpage for a fraction of 

 its present value. We will commit waste if we 

 sell it for less than it can now be replaced for. 



Labor and capital constitute wealth, and capi- 

 tal includes raw material ; and when one impairs 

 his capital he commits waste, sustains loss, and 

 if he continues he will surely become bankrupt. 



If one takes the risk of advancing capital in 

 any enterprise to employ labor, he is entitled 

 to a safe profit and should control the business 

 free from annoying legislation which prevents 

 or limits his privileges in getting together with 

 other manufacturers gathering such information 

 and having such understandings with each other 

 as will prevent waste of either public or private 

 resources. 



The experience of this and other nations is 

 that much legislative interference by the state 

 is most often unwise, does great harm and little 

 good, and history bears out this statement. 

 There are instances where legislation is needed 

 and is justified by humane reasons, such as the 

 regulation of child labor and sanitary conditions 

 and oppressive monopoly ; but under the national 

 and state antitrust laws such is their possible 

 power and range that much more harm than 

 good Is being done under their radical enforce- 

 ment, and many of those who helped to frame 

 these laws now say that some provisions should 

 be amended or repealed. This was asked for by 

 px-I'resideut Roosevelt, and I notice that Presi- 

 dent Taft proposes to carry out the Uooseveit 

 policies and advocates the amendment of the 

 Slieiman law. 



Talk About a Trust 



Lumbermen have been accused of being in a 

 trust when they wftre struggling to keep their 

 heads above water and prevent bankruptcy. 

 They have been summoned before courts and 

 tribunals when they had gotten together and 

 were trying to adopt plans to save themselves 

 from impending disaster and prevent waste of 

 their forests. During the panic of 1907, when 



it was necessary to consider plainly the situ- 

 ation of their increasing indebtedness and waste 

 of natural resources, it was thought best not 

 to admit reporters, as their publication of cer- 

 tain alarming conditions might, in the excite- 

 ment, add to the then present dangers. But the 

 cry of trust caused the president and secretary 

 to be brought before the court then in session 

 and the minutes and transactions of the- meeting 

 examined before the grand jury. 



Sometimes it looks as if a rift is appearing 

 in the clouds. I note that the right of corpora- 

 lions to organize subsidiary corporations to con- 

 duct a part of their business was sustained last 

 week by Judge Elmer B. Adams of the United 

 States Circuit Court of Appeals in .deciding a 

 suit brought under the Sherman antitrust act. 

 Then, in another state, we note that the state 

 department last week charges that a combine 

 amongst lumbermen exists because the mills only 

 operate lour days in a week. The lumbermen 

 reply that they can't get cars. Now when they 

 get cars, will they run six days in a week in 

 order not to be arrested for being in a "trust"? 

 Will lumbermen be obliged to overproduce and 

 commit waste'/ Will conservation never come 

 until the last tree is cut? 



Merchandising is easier il we practice thor- 

 ough conservation and do not waste by selling 

 commodities manufactured from our natural re- 

 sources at less than their cost of reproduction. 

 Let the motto he, "Selling a product below cost 

 of reproduction is waste." A reasonable profit 

 above this cost is legitimate merchandising. 



Another thing, forest conservation has come 

 to stay. Let it not serve us weakly by its purely 

 academic theories, but let us all join that It 

 may serve us strongly with the practical help 

 we can give to these theories. Practical for- 

 estry will prove itself our friend. It is our 

 work. Gilford Pinchot has unselfishly aided us. 

 with nothing to gain beyond the cause he loves. 

 He suffered much discomfort in our behalf be- 

 cause ol the prejudice and misunderstanding of 

 the people as to the truth of the situation and 

 what real conservation demands. We owe him 

 a debt of gratitude. 



Conservation of Waste Peoduct 



Until the eighteenth century merchandising, 

 commerce and trade were considered an art, 

 but economists of later years regard it as a 

 science, requiring educated and broad intelligent 

 management. Lumbermen who are progressive 

 in everything excepting that which pertains to 

 their own cult should learn the science and in- 

 evitable laws which govern their business, and 

 it is our duty to then lend an energetic hand 

 to help educate the people as to true economic 

 conditions regarding this, one of the most Im- 

 portant ol our natural resources. When the 

 public mind becomes inflamed over sensational 

 press articles that the forests are disappearing, 

 and that lumbermen are devastating and com- 

 mitting sinful waste, influenced by poetic senti- 

 ment and wild prejudice, then the truth needs 

 to be told, and told effectively and well, that 

 unwise and harmful legislation to the whole 

 people be not enacted. They should know that 

 cities and towns, and the demands of a con- 

 stantly growing population cannot obtain with- 

 out the marketing ol our forest products, and 

 that every manufacturer is eager to save and 

 sell everything he can find a market for. 



While in New Orleaus I visited the American 

 Turpentine & Tar Company's plant, which Is a 

 concern owned by one family and no stock is 

 for sale. They are going to build another plant. 

 They started this plant with sixteen stills. They 

 now have forty stills and they told me that they 

 got from one cord of wood the following prod- 

 ucts : 



Three hundred gallons ot pyroligenous acid 

 of uncertain value. They sell it all the way 

 from 4 to 20 cents a gallon. There is an over- 

 production ol this acid, because they have not 

 yet found sufficient uses for it : 



