320 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



improvement of the industry. Forest industry will produce like re- 

 sults whenever forests are handled for continuous production instead 

 of destruction. It is repugnant to the nature of civilized man to 

 destroy, and only the desire for immediate gain leads him to do so. 

 Planning and executing plans for permanent development of forests 

 will create pride of workmanship where destruction of forests 

 never can. 



We find then under destructive lumbering the following results ac- 

 crue to labor: 



1. Denial, in most cases, of the opportunity for normal family life. 



2. Deprivation of most rights of citizenship, especially the right of 

 suflFrage. 



3. Irregularity of employment. 



4. Deprivation of all "stake" in industry and in its management. 



5. Continuous feeling of sense of injustice, resulting in many cases, 

 together with above causes, in desire to overthrow the existing insti- 

 tutions of organized society by violence. 



These conditions are most dangerous to the community where they 

 occur and to the nation. The question remains whether they are due 

 to destructive lumbering or are essentially part of forest industry. 

 To answer this we may compare conditions in our forest industry with 

 those in the same industry in France and Germany. In those coun- 

 tries where continuous forest production is practiced, it appears that 

 employment is continuous, and the general conditions perhaps better 

 in forest industry than in other industries. They indeed closely ap- 

 proach conditions in agricultural industry, and with it form a firm 

 bulwark, instead of a source of weakness, in the national life. 



Is it then only in America that such conditions are necessary? To 

 so afilirm is to say that abundance of forest resources is a curse rather 

 than a blessing. It must, of course, be fully obvious to anyone con- 

 versant with some of the principles of economics, that the general 

 abundance of resources in America as compared with Europe makes 

 it possible, if intelligence be applied, to handle them on as conservative 

 a basis as public needs may indicate. Continuous forest production on 

 sustained yield basis is not only feasible but there can be no doubt that 

 practicable improvement in conditions of labor which can be made to 

 accompany it, will so improve the spirit and increase productivity of 

 labor as to more than pay any slight increase in costs due to this 

 changed policy in forest management. Early initiation of steps in 

 this direction must not, therefore, be delayed for long. 



