322 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



livestock diseases, road building, forest fire protection. State control 

 with Federal co-operation in every case. Americanism rather than 

 Prussianism is the better vk^ay. 



In Proposing Control of the Lumber Industry. — We know not what 

 action with respect to the lumber industry may be necessary in the far 

 future. It may all be in public hands; but at present to make the 

 complete control of this enormous industry a part of the forestry plan 

 is not going to help secure the main thing we have in view. It is un- 

 necessary to argue here whether the lumber industry should be under 

 public control. Whether it should or should not, the tieing up of a 

 National Forestry Program with that proposal is going to be fatal. 



In Trying to Solve the Labor Problem. — That the labor problem as 

 it exists in the lumber industry cries out for solution is not debatable, 

 but the moment we begin to work on the labor problem in the lumber 

 industry, we find it a part of the whole labor problem of the country. 

 The public will insist upon its being so considered, and so will Con- 

 gress. If the forestry problem has to wait upon the solution of the 

 labor problem, then forestry is doomed. It is a mistake to tie the two 

 together. 



In Its Proposed Plan of Organisation. — The Committee proposes a 

 commission, consisting of the Secretaries of Agriculture and Labor 

 and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. The commission 

 would have general jurisdiction over the forestry problem and indus- 

 tries. The Forest Service would become the chief instrumentality for 

 carrying the commission's policies into effect. In itself it would have 

 no more authority than it now has and it would become subject, though 

 to what extent is not clear, to the Secretary of Labor and to the Fed- 

 eral Trade Commission. Pity the Forest Service when it begins to 

 serve the three masters ! 



That the Forest Service is organized on too small a basis for its 

 present great responsibilities is recognized by many, and that it would 

 be wholly unable to cope with the problems of a truly National scheme 

 of forestry is certain. Its foundations will of course have to be made 

 stronger. Merely to make it subservient to three departments, with no 

 more authority than it has now, will not answer the purpose. The plan 

 proposed by the Missoula Section would be far preferable. 



In Its Uncertain Constitutional Basis. — The use of private lands 

 under our Government has always been considered a State problem. 

 Forestry, so far as it relates to private lands, is such a problem. It is 



