900 JOURNAL 01" FORESTRY 



their management so thoroughly approved by the pubHc in general 

 that any attempt to turn them over to private ownership would only 

 result in extending the policy of public ownership. 



Another and a bigger fight has now begun, with a far greater issue 

 at stake. I use the word fight, because I mean precisely that. Forest 

 devastation will not be stopped through persuasion, a method which 

 has been thoroughly tried out for the past twenty years and has failed 

 utterly. Since otherwise they will not do so, private owners of forest 

 land must now be compelled to manage their properties in harmony 

 with the public good. Pressure from without, in the form of public 

 sentiment, crystallized in compulsory nation-wide legislation, is the 

 only method that promises adequate results. To apply this method 

 successfully means to fight. 



There is a small minority of progressive lumbermen who are broad- 

 minded and far-sighted enough to realize that destructive lumbering 

 must cease and that the private owner must shoulder his share of the 

 load. These men will support a reasonable program to that end. pro- 

 vided all lumbermen are placed upon a uniform basis when the 

 change is made. Foresters will welcome such support without reserve. 

 The lumber industry as a whole, however, is so constituted and in- 

 spired that a change from within is not to be expected. 



With the publication of this report, every forester in the country 

 must face a clear-cut issue. He must act either with foresters for 

 the public interest, or with lumbermen for a special interest. By this 

 I do not mean that he must necessarily support the plan advanced by 

 the Committee for the Application of Forestry, or any other particular 

 plan. I do mean, however, that he must actively support and fight for 

 some plan aimed directly at the prevention of forest devastation on 

 privately owned lands, if he is to call himself a forester in the finest 

 sense of that fine word. 



The issue is real and immediate because forest devastation increases 

 with appalling rapidity ; because the need for governmental control on 

 private timberlands is now self-evident; because without such control 

 the general practice of forestry in this country will never become a 

 reality; and because unless enough forestry is practiced to prevent 

 forest devastation the danger to our prosperity in peace and safety in 

 war will grow steadily worse. The field is cleared for action and the 

 lines are plainly drawn. He who is not for forestry is against it. The 

 choice lies between the convenience of the lumbermen and the public 

 good. 



