THE REAL ISSUE 



By Henry S. Graves 



Forester, U. S. Forest Service 



About a year ago we began serious discussion of a national policy 

 of forestry. Very divergent views have been expressed about the 

 economic situation of our forests and wood-consuming industries, and 

 about what remedial measures are necessary. It is significant that the 

 more the situation has been discussed and diverse views expressed, 

 the more a few fundamental principles of importance have become em- 

 phasized, and the matters of less importance have retreated into the 

 background. Mr. Pinchot and his committee worked out their policy 

 quite independently of the group in the Forest Service. Yet we find 

 the committee making as their great objective the stopping of the 

 destructive processes that are turning forests into real wastes. We 

 find emphasis being placed upon the responsibility of timberland 

 owners to handle their lands in a way not to injure the public, em- 

 phasis upon the responsibility of the public, not only to own and 

 rightly handle extensive public forests, but to cooperate with and aid 

 private owners, and emphasis also on the imperative need that the 

 public, through legislative and executive action, require owners to re- 

 deem their responsibilities in the prevention of forest devastation. 



These are principles that I myself also have been advocating for a 

 year, and they constitute the real issues that have got to be settled 

 before we can go very far in the establishment of a national policy of 

 forestry. 



The committee is unanimous in the matter of the objectives and 

 more important principles of a policy. A dissenting voice is raised by 

 Professor Toumey in regard to the inclusion in the statement of policy 

 of such matters as labor relationships, control of production, and other 

 purely industrial questions. He also disapproves the principle that the 

 Federal Government should exercise control over the handling of 

 private forests, but asserts that such requirements as may be imposed 

 on owners in forest protection and forest renewal should be through 

 the agency of the States. The committee appears to reflect the dififer- 

 ences of opinion that exist in the profession at large. Broadly speak- 



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