DISCUSSION OF THE PINCHOT COMMITTEE REPORT BY 

 MEMBERS OF THE MISSOULA SECTION OF 

 THE SOCIETY. 

 By Fred Mason 



The report of the Pinchot Committee for the application of forestry 

 deals with a tremendous subject. Its object is one in which the general 

 public as well as the lumber industry should be much more interested 

 than it is. Well informed members of the lumber industry are prob- 

 ably as fully aware of the facts, if not more so, than many members 

 of the forestry profession. Our appeal should be directed to the public, 

 but should be made in a manner that will not antagonize the lumber- 

 man. We must bear in mind the fact that, however much we desire to 

 see the principles of forestry applied in the woods so that there may be 

 an adequate supply of forest products for the consuming public, it is 

 the lumberman through whose mills our timber supply must pass be- 

 fore it reaches the consumers. The dealings of foresters will be largely 

 with lumbermen in marketing the products of America's forests. The 

 lumberman can do much to help us if his sympathy with the movement 

 is enlisted. He can do much to hinder us from taking over his holdings 

 if he chooses. It is with the lumber industry that we must work hand 

 in hand in the application of our principles. 



Why then should we set out on this crusade by denouncing the indus- 

 try upon which we must rely to convert stumpage into useful products 

 needed by the public? The Committee's report is unjust to the lumber- 

 man and will do little to enlist his sympathy with the movement for the 

 universal application of forestry principles to the handling of his prop- 

 erty. In the presentation of 'The Facts" the lumberman is condemned 

 for the way in which he has handled his labor problem. He is accused 

 of generating labor troubles of dangerous proportions. The reader is 

 left to infer that in some manner the lumberman, through his nefarious 

 practices, is responsible for such conditions as brought on the recent 

 coal strike or the threatened railroad strike, or has forced his men to 

 join the I. W. W. movement in self-defense. Specific objection is 

 made to conditions as they have been. The progressive lumberman 

 today, at least in the Inland Empire, is doing much to overcome the 

 objection to housing conditions. If the layman would visit one of the 



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