EDITORAL COMMENT 



Private Forestry 



At least once a month every forester, every lumberman, and every 

 editor of a lumberman's magazine should re-read the message of the 

 President of our Society printed in the ]\Iarch issue of the Jourxal to 

 put him in a right frame of mind. 



If language can goad to action, ]\Ir. Olmsted's vigorous arraign- 

 ment of the lumbermen should go a long way to arouse them, and 

 foresters as well. Plitherto, it was considered a sin on the part of 

 foresters to antagonize the lumbermen, who must be '"persuaded" 

 gently to do better ; such denunciatory language as ^Ir. Olmsted 

 uses would have been tactically unwise. Xow, however, having failed 

 with gentility, we may bring up stronger hints of what we think, and 

 even repeat approvingly such choice bits as the following : 



"The lumberman refuses to look upon his industry from a view- 

 point extending beyond his immediate, individualistic interests, and 

 in stupidly keeping to this narrow outlogk he is injuring himself as 

 well as the public. He is killing his forests. . . . The lumbermen 

 of this country have proved themselves incapable of managing their 

 own business interests, to say nothing of the interests of the public. 

 . . . Among the definitions of the verb 'lumber' are the follo\ying : 

 'to heap in disorder,' '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 cumbrous and disorderly, and for many years past has made a 

 great to-do about advancing, without advancing. . . . The indus- 

 try 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 Government 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 bulk of 

 the raw material, the timber. . . . 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." 



We hope that Mr. Olmsted's committee of foresters will be as 

 vigorous in constructive direction, formulating a national forest policy. 



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