62 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



ism" is to represent some degree of national unity rather than an 

 average struck between 57 varieties of provincialism. 



Alternatives to Organization 



It is, as has been already recognized, possible to have the govern- 

 ment step in, make scientific and industrial researches and supervise 

 the industry. The object of effort along any line being to increase 

 the efficiency of the industry and better its service to the community 

 the query may be raised as to whether this betterment of the industry 

 can best be brought about by those who are in and have experience 

 and training therein or by outsiders with no knowledge thereof or only 

 theoretical at most. Paternal control and administration by the govern- 

 ment means much of the latter. It further means that the investigators 

 under these conditions are perpetually condemned to thought without 

 action. Under this condition it is the exceptional man who is able to 

 pursue his work energetically or keep it on a plane where it can be 

 immediately usable. I do not question the enormous basic value of 

 the work of pure scientists, but only a few can be content to pursue 

 science for its own sake. Most of us are spurred to greater efforts by 

 seeing our discoveries put to successful use. In agriculture it is known 

 that the practice lags far behind the knowledge but the research is 

 organized outside the industry. Would it not be advisable in forest 

 industry to have the research organized within the industry as here 

 proposed, so that the discoveries of research men can somewhere be 

 put into immediate effect on a commercial scale oftentimes under the 

 direction of the discoverer, or in other words under the conditions 

 best making for success. I have already suggested that to let the in- 

 dustry work out its own salvation, but with free hands, is best calculated 

 to perpetuate the traditional American qualities of self-reliance and 

 self-respect. Moreover, since no practicable amount of research and 

 market extension can market in a hurry 2,200 billion feet of timber in 

 private hands, all this work will by itself fail in permanently solving 

 the problems of the industry. Cost accounting, useful as it is, will not 

 prevent any man from selling below cost of production, when he has 

 interest and other fixed charges to meet, neither will it prevent the 

 wastage of assets on the part of mills shut down because they will not 

 sell lumber below cost of production. Remember that one-third of 

 our mills must, on the average, be shut down, hence depreciation is 

 going on in these without being reflected in product. 



Eventually, therefore, if the government is to be universal solver 



