446 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



tion to act, and since the objects to be attained are interstate objects, 

 that may best be supplied by the Nation. 



Bear in mind, also, that whenever forest devastation has been stopped 

 and bids fair to remain stopped on a given area of timber holdings, 

 the plan provides for the withdrawal of Federal control. This pro- 

 vision, by the way, should be made mandatory on the Commission, so 

 that just as soon as private owners have proved themselves capable of 

 keeping their lands productive, future control would be in their own 

 hands. Government supervision should be necessary as a temporary 

 expedient only, unless by the continued fault of the lumbermen them- 

 selves. 



FivEXIBIUTY 



The lumbermen and some foresters have raised a familiar to-do 

 about the "iron-clad" regulations for the country as a whole which 

 they conceive to be necessary under national control. This argument 

 hardly deserves an answer. Of course there would be no fixed regu- 

 lations for the whole country. The governing principles would be es- 

 tablished by the Commission in Washington ; but the regulations would 

 be made and applied locally, in such fashion to fit the peculiarities of 

 the forest conditions wherever forest crops are harvested. The Forest 

 Service sells timber from the National Forests all over the country, 

 in many different types of forest growth, under as many different 

 forms of regulation. This is precisely the sort of national control 

 which would be applied to private timberlands, a control so elastic as 

 to be moulded to all possible forest conditions. 



SELF-GOVERNMENT 



Will national control interfere with self-government? The problem 

 concerns national, not local, self-government. What Oregon does with 

 its timberlands is of vital concern to Massachusetts, Kansas, and the 

 whole Nation. Colonel Greely, in replying to the plea of the Board 

 of Forest Commissioners of the State of Washington that the National 

 Forests be turned over to the separate States, hit the nail squarely 

 when he said : 



"The problem of supplying this country with newsprint, lumber, 

 and other forest products is not a State problem or a local problem ; 

 it is just as much a national problem as our railroad transportation 

 system and our merchant marine." 



BUSINESS PHASES 



To most lumber companies the reports called for by the Committee's 

 plan will not mean additional work, for they already prepare and sub- 

 mit such information to their own associations. The public is per- 

 fectly justified in demanding information on the essential facts con- 

 nected with the business conditions of an industry vital to the public 



