HOW LUMBERMEN HAVE SERVED THE PUBLIC 287 



against the country's intelligence. The facts are admitted, but against 

 them I will set up two considerations. First, if the Lake States lost 

 native resources at least they became populous and wealthy in other 

 things, while a still more noteworthy fact is that the Prairie and Plains 

 States were built up more quickly and cheaply than we can conceive 

 of their being built under any other system. That is, with its faults 

 our system also had its advantages, and the nature of both is such 

 that the question involved is social and governmental, not technical. 



For the second offsetting consideration I shall take you to another 

 region where the course of repair that a great and wealthy country 

 like this can make, and will make when the times comes, is already 

 to be seen in operation. And here conservationists, as these were repre- 

 sented at an important period and in respect to some very material 

 matters, will in my judgment have to yield in wisdom to the popular 

 and business instinct. 



Twenty-four years ago, when I first took up forestry, a critical 

 point was the treatment of the White Mountain forests. In New 

 England at that time economic conditions had just got around to cali 

 heavily on those mountain forests for lumber and paper stock. Loggers 

 were inventing new schemes for getting that timber, and business 

 concerns were in there stripping the spruce off clean as far as they 

 could reach it. Nobody interfered in an effective way, but there was 

 a lot of reviling of those lumbermen. They were robbers; they were 

 spoiling the scenery ; they ought to stop or else cut conservatively. 

 However, people seemed glad to get the lumber and paper at lowest 

 market prices. 



The first relief came when the fact last mentioned was pointed out. 

 Next a few men gained standing enough to convince people that if 

 those lumbermen were going to cut those mountain slopes at all they 

 ought to clear cut them ; also that reproduction of tree growth was 

 quick and abundant. Now for some years past we have been buying 

 back these lands and putting them under protection and management. 

 I will say for myself that I think in following this history these lands 

 have served and fitted the life of this country better than they would 

 under any other. From all except the scenic viewpoint, we are in 

 ample time, for vast areas_ were not burnt or eroded, while all New 

 England yet has large stocks of timber. A main point is that when 

 the time came we had the wealth, created in part from the natural 

 resources of that very ground, to do what was necessary. 



