250 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



ticular interest to foresters. One expressed appreciation of the work 

 of the Madison Laboratory and requested Congress to continue ade- 

 quate funds for its work. The other recites that : 



"A census of standing timber classilied by species, location, and accessibility — 

 a census of cut-over lands that will remain temporarily or permanently forest — 

 would secure to the lumber industry information important in the conduct of 

 its business, would afiford a basis for the interpretation of economic problems 

 in forest and wood-using industries, and would aid the development of a perma- 

 nent national forest policy in respect to timber ownership, lumber export, tariff, 

 local taxation, value of stumpage, and sundry forest problems." 



Congress is urged to make such a census possible. 



Few matters of national economics and nothing in the field of forestry 

 is second in urgency or far-reaching importance to the proposed census. 

 As Sargent's work in the Tenth Census first proved the suspicions of 

 a few "cranks," and as the work of the Bureau of Corporations in 1913 

 demonstrated in full the contentions of the small group of "conserva- 

 tionists," and as both were promptly reflected in national policy and 

 legislation, so the new, and for the first time adequate, timber census 

 may be expected to present our national forest status in a manner cer- 

 tain to accelerate enormously the interests of foresters and, of course, 

 the permanent interests of the lumber industry. 



It is to be hoped that the census may also include more adequate 

 inventory of the woodlots of the country than has yet been seciu'ed. 



Foresters should certainly leave no stone unturned in supporting the 

 lumberman's Chicago resolution. 



I LUMBFRMFN WANT DFPKNDABLF STATISTICS 



A somewhat tardy, perhaps, but none the less real, appreciation of the 

 urgent need for an adequate consideration of forest economics is in- 

 dicated by a report to the directors of the National Lumber Manu- 

 facturers' Association. The report, which was adopted, calls for an 

 organization to study and make available the base data of the industry. 



"We want to know the amount of our investment and that of the industry; 

 how much timber we have and the amount of timber owned and controlled by 

 the industry; the value of our timber; the cost of production; a cost system that 

 is uniform; the available supply of timber in stocks and production; the prices 

 obtained for our product. In other words, we should build within this body a 

 bureau of lumber economics in the same way the railroads have estabhshed a 

 bureau of railroad economics. We may witness the Federal Trade Commission 

 making an effort to secure this information as the Interstate Railroad Commis- 

 sion does for the railroads. But the railroads found it desirable and advisable 

 to establish their own bureau, and for the same reason we should have a check 

 upon these figures as well as the information itself." 



