THF. WORK AIIlCAl) 233 



for such a privilege this proposed trust would agree to conform to cer- 

 tain standards of business management, labor management, forest man- 

 agement, and "treatment of the public," which might as well be called 

 public management. Admission to such a combination and the stand- 

 ards required would be in the hands of various departments of the 

 Government and the organization would be controlled by a board, upon 

 which the Government would be represented to the meager proportion- 

 ate extent of its own timber holdings. Once organized and instructed, 

 this syndicate would be trusted to work out its own fate and the fate of 

 the public without upper-handed control by the Government. 



For years we have been concerned with trees, lumbermen, and the 

 public interest, and past experience offers small encouragement for the 

 success of collective enterprise on any such basis. Success would be 

 doubtful because the lumbermen of this country have proved them- 

 selves incapable of managing their own industry efficiently even from 

 the standpoint of their own business interests, to say nothing of the 

 interests of the public ; because the management of forests for con- 

 tinuous production, which is of prime importance to the public, if left 

 to the lumbermen would become of secondary importance when con- 

 flicting with the greatest immediate financial gain ; and. in general, 

 because the control exercised by the Government would be entirely 

 inadequate for the protection of public interests. 



Lumbermen are now referred to as a class, the remarks below not 

 holding good for a few exceptional individuals of the trade. A lum- 

 berman is one engaged in the felling and shaping of timber. Among 

 the definitions of the verb lumber are the following: "to heap in dis- 

 order" ; "to move cumbrously along" ; "to advance with a rumbling 

 noise." Regardless of the origin of these definitions, they are fairly 

 descriptive of the lumber industry of the United States. It is cum- 

 brous and disorderly, and for many years past has made a great to-do 

 about advancing, without advancing. In certain regions it has made 

 substantial progress in protecting its own properties against fire, being 

 largely driven to it by force of public sentiment. In protecting its own 

 properties it has helped to protect forests in general through the whole- 

 some influence exerted upon the careless, ignorant, and criminal part of 

 the ])opulation. From some of its publicity work it might be inferred 

 that in practicing fire prevention it was also i)racticing forestry or forest 

 conservation, in a broader sense, which has not been true. The pre- 

 vention of fire is. of course, a vital step preliminary to the practice of 

 forestry, but it is not forestry. Moreover, fire prevention as ])racticed 

 voluntarily by the lumbermen consists mainly in measures for the pro- 



