312 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



with the income tax. Timber, unhke coal, is a renewable resource, and 

 the public demands that it be treated as such. The application of for- 

 estry, therefore, implies a fundamental change in the business structure 

 of the lumber industry, a change which directly concerns the public 

 welfare. 



Under forestry the costs of keeping forest lands productive may be 

 charged off currently. The lumberman will not be obliged to hold his 

 cut-over lands, although he is now doing so in the great majority of 

 cases, even when his lands have become worthless through devastation. 

 If he sells them later on to the Government, the State, or to private 

 interests, will not lands supporting young stands of timber be decidedly 

 more valuable than devastated tracts? The lumber industry is not 

 fighting against the imposition of added production costs, which it pre- 

 tends may be made excessive; it is fighting against the principle of 

 Federal or State control of any part of its business. 



COUNCILS OF OPERATORS 



The proposal that the lumber industry should create suitable ma- 

 chinery for transacting business with the Government seems to have 

 caused an undue ripple of excitement. It is suggested that the opera- 

 tors in each economic forest region should voluntarily form councils, 

 Or boards, or committees — call them what you will — and that the Gov- 

 ernment should grant official recognition to such bodies. From these 

 regional councils national representatives would be chosen to act for the 

 industry as a whole. As the essence of the Committee's plan is to place 

 all possible authority in local hands, the bulk of the negotiations would 

 fall to the regional councils. The organization should, in fact, be still 

 further localized, the various economic forest districts within each re- 

 gion being represented by district councils. It is taken for granted that 

 the lumber industry would be glad to form such councils. If it should 

 fail to do so, which is hardly conceivable, it would certainly be wise to 

 give the commission authority to create equivalent agencies. Organ- 

 ized representation of lumber operators would seem to be one of the 

 first essentials of good administration. 



COUNCILS OF LABOR 



In dealing with councils from the employees the Forest Service 

 would, of course, be chiefly interested in the woods workers and in 



