REVIEWS 



Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Convention of the Empire State 

 Forest Products Association. December 19, 1916. 



This association, composed of some sixty-odd lumber and pulp- 

 wood and kindred corporations, timberland owners, and persons in- 

 terested in forestry, seems, with the eleventh year of its existence, to 

 have taken on new life, with a new constitution and reorganization. 

 The object, as stated in the constitution, would make it appear less a 

 trade association, as one would at first sight assume, than one for 

 public benefit, for, besides promoting the interests of its members, it 

 is "to protect, perpetuate, and increase the forest growth of the State 

 through the establishment of a rational and constructive system of 

 forestry, the conservation and development of water-power in the 

 State of New York, to promote friendly intercourse between the 

 members, and to cooperate with others interested in like objects." 



The most important contribution to the proceedings consisted in 

 two after-dinner speeches, not so much on account of the contents 

 as on account of the personalities who made them, namely. Secretary 

 of State Hugo, and Speaker of the Assembly Sweet. Both speeches 

 discussed the forest policies of the State ; both were informed and 

 thoroughly rational, statesman-like and not mere politician's clap-trap. 



The tenor of the speeches is perhaps best caught by quoting a 

 paragraph of the secretary's remarks, after having traced the history 

 of the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve : 



"It seems to me the difficulty is, confusion of thought in the public 

 mind in analyzing the proposition. This confusion is as between the 

 aesthetic value of the Adirondacks and the utility value, and the con- 

 fusion is due to the fact that the public is not quite clear as to the 

 use they desire to have made of the Adirondacks, and this problem 

 will never be solved until the people of the State have a clear point 

 of view as to whether the Forest Preserve is to be used for park 

 purposes or as a Forest Preserve. The two are not synonymous. 

 The difficulty is, we are trying to do two things that cannot be done 

 at the same time. In other words, the whole Forest Preserve cannot 

 be a public park, without any interference whatever, and at the same 

 time a Forest Preserve, which implies governmental regulation. 



"The problem of clearing up this confusion in thought requires 

 courage and education, in order to clear up the hostile attitude at 



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