THE WORK AHEAD 235 



is a pioneer in laissez-faire. The industry has, to be sure, made a nota- 

 ble advance in mechanical appliances for logging and milling, which 

 has resulted both in decreased costs of manufacture and in enormous 

 overproduction of manufactured materials. In the woods such appli- 

 ances have generally resulted in increased forest destruction. The 

 industry as a whole is archaic, individually self-centered, and penny- 

 wise. If lumbermen are ever permitted to combine in restraint of trade, 

 the United States G.overnment should be the undisputed and ever-active 

 boss of the industry so combined, and perhaps the simplest way for the 

 Government to make sure of its control would be to own the great bulk 

 of the raw material, the timber. 



For many years past the forester has endeavored to persuade the 

 lumberman that measures for keeping his lands productive were worth 

 adopting. Persuasion has utterly failed, resulting in little more than 

 mild amusement on the lumberman's part. The lumberman, to be sure, 

 has always expressed a keen desire to "co-operate" with the forester 

 in all ways possible ; but the difficulty there has been that in practice 

 the lumberman's understanding of co-operation has been to accept 

 everything to his immediate liking and to yield nothing in return. Pre- 

 cisely at the point where the forester's suggestions imply a present 

 restraint on the lumberman's part in order to insvire the future welfare 

 of both the public and the lumberman, the forester becomes a theorist, 

 an idealist, and what chambers of commerce are pleased to term an 

 "insidious influence." The humor of the situation is that the lumber 

 industry has fallen to its present level because of a total lack of theory 

 and ideals. The time for persuasion has passed. 



These are the two tasks before us which overshadow all others : 

 First, to compel the private owner of forest lands to keep his soils pro- 

 ductive. Second, to reach a clear-cut conclusion as to whether the 

 bulk of timber producing lands should rest ultimately in private or 

 public ownership ; if in private ownership, under what system and con- 

 trol ; if in public ownership, through what procedure. The first task 

 is far and away of greatest immediate importance. Have we anything 

 more worth while to think about, write about, and act upon? 



