CONTINUOUS FOREST PRODUCTION . 57 



again that good markets for liimber are ruined almost immediately by 

 over^supply originating under this policy. 



Given effective organization, the lumbermen can solve their own 

 problems, but they cannot do so with hands tied behind them as has 

 been done and is the case today. Without the right to organize effec- 

 tively it will be necessary to continually increase government aid, and 

 do, at the general expense of the community, what the industry is not 

 permitted to do for itself. A horde of government investigators will 

 be necessary to investigate markets, utilization of by-products, etc., 

 and supervise the industry. This will gradually weaken and eventually 

 destroy that self-reliance which has so far, in the main, characterized 

 American industry. In place of it will come dependence on a paternal 

 government for the privilege of industrial existence. 



It is not, of course, advocated that organization for continuous 

 yield should be carried out in a high handed or unintelligent manner, 

 which would deprive existing mills of their raw material. The situation 

 can be remedied only gradually. If the cut of forests is limited by 

 producing units to what these units can produce continuously, the 

 result will be to put a stop in future to the building of unnecessary mills. 

 Wherever only one mill can be supported permanently, only one will be 

 built. This means that depreciation, interest and maintenance are 

 confined to one plant and depreciation of plant due to exhaustion of 

 raw material eliminated. 



Objections to Organization 



First in the minds of many is the fact that effective organization 

 ■requires exemption from the action of the Sherman anti-trust law. 

 This act has come to rank in sacredness along with the Constitution 

 to such an extent that the politician dares speak of its modification 

 only in whispers. Nevertheless, there are now many so bold as to 

 suggest that the originators of this act were not gifted with divine fire 

 and that, anyway, times have changed since its enactment. Is it too 

 much to ask at this late date that each industry be dealt with according 

 to its needs and merits? We are now to have special legislation per- 

 mitting combinations for foreign trade. That is to say, it is recognized 

 that in foreign fields the consumer must be served with standard goods 

 from the price of which the cost of competition has been eliminated. 

 The American consumer will not have the privilege of this service, 

 however, because competition and the industrial gambling which ac- 

 companies it is our fetish. 



