118 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



for the author, however, who connects it all into a logical fabric em- 

 form would have been worth alone a book. It is only a starting point 

 bracing the most timely and important problems and tendencies in the 

 whole field. 



It was said at the start that conservationists should profit from the 

 ideas of a cool man and an economist. Merely following the aspects 

 of the industry developed in that way helps to that purpose, opening 

 up its complexity, difficulties, what competition means. Then 

 Compton emphasizes a side of the matter which foresters, in their 

 intentness on increased production, have neglected occasionally — the 

 value of our native stock as the basis of industry and a reserve of high 

 class material. But the big feature of the work as respects both this 

 and its other bearings is his development of the relations of price. 

 Under his handling that appears as the crucial point of the whole 

 matter. Quantity and quality granted, the desire or necessity of the 

 people is expressed in price. The whole history of the lumber indus- 

 try stands as a response to that, and the developments of the future, 

 along however different lines they may lie, will be enjoyed in the same 

 way. 



Here Compton touches conservationists very closely. He is sympa- 

 thetic but conservative. Broad changes in economic demand are 

 familiar to him and he sees a vast range of forces playing upon that 

 factor and on price. A "habit of inordinate consumption" of lumber 

 is a striking phrase which seems to embody his idea on one branch of 

 the subject. Then this view takes in the timber resources of as yet 

 undeveloped countries and the substitution of other materials for 

 lumber. He does not, however, directly and at length, develop this 

 subject. 



It is the lumber industry itself, however, that will gain most from 

 his work. Familiar as it is or might be, it has been poorly understood 

 by many makers of public opinion, and under suspicion and disfavor 

 in the recent past. As a corrective, putting this industry on the level 

 with others, where it belongs, this book should be effective in whatever 

 area it can cover. It is, in fact, astonishing to consider how convincing 

 the work of a single, earnest, competent and balanced man can be as 

 against the results of enormous expenditure through a big organization. 



A very few lines in the way of review must suffice for the present 

 purpose. The lumber trust bogy is put to rout through a picture of 

 the dispersal of the industry, the regional competition within it, and 

 especially through a broad study of the history of lumber prices. In 



