744 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



men. The same process will occur in the West. As expressed in the 

 report : "Financial strength, strategic location, ownership of the most 

 accessible timber, far-reaching affiliations of one form or another, 

 including in some instances affiliations with transcontinental railroads — 

 all of these factors will tend to give the large interests of the Northwest 

 a greater and greater degree of control of the situation. This control 

 will increase for a considerable period in about the same ratio as 

 forest depletion goes on, and to a corresponding degree will involve 

 the dangers to the public interest arising from a natural monopoly." 



Taken althogether the Forest Service report presents a situation 

 with regard to our forests whose seriousness can scarcely be exagger- 

 ated. We have already reached the point where the cumulative effects 

 of the past destruction of our forests are being increasingly felt. We 

 are looking forward to an era of industrial expansion, of agricultural 

 settlement of our extensive areas of cultivable lands, of home building 

 on a large scale, of better standards of living and of social relations. 

 Each step will encounter obstacles due to our improvidence in regard 

 to our forests alone, aside from other considerations. We must face 

 the facts squarely and decide whether we will allow the old ways to 

 continue or will take effective action to stop the destructive processes 

 that are unnecessarily depleting our remaining forests. The Nation 

 can not longer ignore the situation. The problem will not take care 

 of itself. Private owners left alone will not meet it. The public must 

 take a hand. 



A constructive program for a national policy of forestry is presented 

 in the Capper Report. This is in the main a restatement of the policy 

 that has been urged by the Forest Service during the past 18 months 

 or so. This has been discussed in the Journal so fully that it requires 

 no analysis in this review. 



The material in the Capper Report is so voluminous that it gives 

 the impression that the knowledge of our forest resources is more 

 nearly complete than is really the case. A careful analysis of the 

 data reveals innumerable points where the information is based on 

 broad estimates, doubtless arrived at through the use of averages and 

 percentages. Many gaps occur where even estimates can not be made. 

 The available information was adequate to answer the inquiries of 

 the Senate with confidence in the conclusions. The reader of the 

 report should not, however, be misled by the volume of the data in 

 the belief that our knowledge is sufficient for our economic and in- 

 dustrir.l needs. 



