REVIEWS 433 



their own, for which they will need lumber and forest products of 

 all kinds, the amount of pine lumber which we can cut each year will 

 be between one-third and one-half of what it is now. Twenty years 

 from now there will be very little indeed left of our virgin timber of 

 any kind. The nearest virgin timber to Louisiana in any large quantities 

 will then be 3.000 miles away (by rail) in Washington and Oregon." 



What do you think the boys and girls, now going to school, are likely 

 to say to that ? And the boys and girls are undoubtedly entitled to 

 their say. 



Then, further on. under "Shrinking Taxes.'' the following is en- 

 countered : 



"We are all proud of the progress which our State has been making 

 in building new roads, fine schools, and other public improvements. 

 Many of these improvements, particularly the good roads, have been 

 made with borrowed money and the debts must be paid in future 

 years. . . . Where is the money to come from to pay these debts 

 and to meet the expenses of running our parishes, if we are constantly 

 cutting away the forests upon which are paid the greater part of our 

 taxes, and turning valuable land into nearly worthless wastes? Yet 

 that is exactly w^hat w^e are doing in many parts of this State." 



Nor is that all of the indictment. The responsibility of the present 

 for the future is further summed up in the following vivid picture : 



"More than one-fourth of a million people in Louisiana depend for 

 their daily bread on the lumbering industry and other industries de- 

 pendent on the forests ; probably ?5 towns in Louisiana which are 

 now thriving, busy places with good homes, schools and stores, are not 

 likely to outlive the sawmills which have made them centers of popu- 

 lation. Already there are deserted towns in Louisiana from this cause, 

 and some day the whistle on the sawmill in these other towns is going 

 to blow for the last time, because the last logs have been cut in the 

 woods and the last boards have been sawed. Then the formerly busy 

 town will shrink rapidly in size ; there will be no more jobs, men will 

 move away, and homes will be deserted; stores will close; the bank 

 will shut its doors ; and the school will steadily drop in attendance. The' 

 farmers in the neighborhood who used to bring in vegetables, grain, 

 and meat to sell to the mill-folk, will no longer have a handy market, 

 and will have to ship their produce to distant markets. . . . Ex- 

 pensive lumber, dwindling taxes, fewer jobs, and deserted villages are 

 the price which we pay for the constant cutting of the forests without 

 any thought for the future." 



These are all home-thrusts, well directed. The conclusions to be 

 drawn from them are convincing, and inescapable ; and what is more, 



