EDITORIAL COMMENT 

 The Lumber Congress 



The recent Lumber Congress held in Chicago was of more than 

 usual interest to foresters. 



Many of the sessions were devoted to discussions of the movement 

 for a national forest policy, and the interest shown in this subject from 

 various different angles was rather intense. The discussions were 

 characterized by a feeling of uneasiness, a feeling that something 

 should be done — even if the lumbermen had to do it themselves. The 

 advisability of taking some sort of action within the industry itself 

 cropped out more than once in such remarks, for example, as "every 

 good lumberman admits that steps must be taken that have not been 

 taken." A veiled intimation that lumbermen themselves were quite 

 able to handle the situation in their own way might be discerned in 

 the statement that "we are not going to lay down any general forest 

 plan for the whole country — or let anybody else do it." Voluntary 

 local effort would solve the problem. 



The flag, the constitution, property rights, and individual initiative 

 were invoked and approved so freqjiently as to lead the uninformed to 

 believe that foresters, instead of planning to safeguard the public in- 

 terest, were scheming to do away with all these things. The spirit of 

 Speaker Sweet held the chair. 



Aside from frequent scolding, labor was mentioned once, mildly, 

 and in passing. Not only waste in trees should be considered ; the 

 human element must be borne in mind. 



The principal plans for preventing forest devastation were briefly 

 summarized by Mr. Allen. He dismissed the plan of the Pinchot 

 Committee from serious consideration because he believed it too radical 

 to command attention anywhere ; it sought to impose the impossible, 

 was unjust, unconstitutional and extreme. The program of the 

 American Pulp and Paper Association was kindly censured because it, 

 as well as the Pinchot report, "passed the buck to the public." The 

 Forest Service plan was referred to (somewhat dubiously) as "the 

 best known and least understood plan of all," and as a plan from wliicli 

 the element of Federal supervision had almost disappeared. Mr. Allen 

 expressed himself very strongly to the effect that lumbermen must 

 cooperate in some plan, and gave warning that a reform in the treat- 



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