REVIEWS 629 



lutely dependent upon it, and however much the unthinking portion of 

 the public may fail to appreciate it, this attitude should not be indis- 

 criminately followed in a responsible publication. There are, of course, 

 forms of speculation which should be suppressed, but it is an undoubted 

 fact that so-called speculation in timber has performed a tremendous 

 public service. The willingness of foresighted individuals to acquire 

 and conserve large bodies of timber for future use formed a forerunner 

 of public appreciation of our forests, which were formerly supposed 

 to be inexhaustible, and therefore requiring no care. This apprecia- 

 tion of forest values brought about the rapid rise of stumpage values 

 in the West pointed out by the report. It was largely instrumental in 

 bringing about the setting aside of the remaining public forests as 

 National Forests. It was also an absolute prerequisite to the forma- 

 tion of the forest fire associations, which began the general protection 

 of private timber lands about 1907, when stumpage values, after the 

 rapid rise of several years, reached the level where it was obviously 

 good business to spend money in protection of these values. Leading 

 foresters have often stated that adequate stumpage values are neces- 

 sary before the practice of forestry can begin. Why decry the process 

 which brought about these values quickly and brought about some 

 practice of forestry while we still had the forests? The long run 

 interests of the public have been served thereby. What should be 

 made clear is that, notwithstanding the great service of speculative 

 capital in the past, when the possibilities of the industry were unproved 

 and conservative investment capital was unavailable, the time for specu- 

 lative organization and management is now past. The urgent need is 

 to put the industry on a conservative investment basis throughout, with 

 the low interest charges incident thereto. 



The report rightly points out that the main problem of forest indus- 

 try is the management of the remaining forests. The present manage- 

 ment of private forests on a purely exploitation basis has brought about 

 and is bringing 'about overdevelopment of the exploitation end of 

 forest industry. This gluts the market, and in ordinary times results 

 in price demoralization, low remuneration or loss of capital, and general 

 disorganization of the industry. This management creates the impres- 

 sion that there is an oversupply of standing timber from the standpoint 

 of the public as well as the timber owner — an impression which is 

 entirely incorrect, but generally leads, nevertheless, to the waste of 

 forest resources through cutting in excess of market demands, through 

 selecting the better classes of material while leaving poorer qualities 



