THE STATUS OF FORES TR Y IX THE I XI TED S TA TES 127 



Unless our forests in private 

 hands are properly protected and 

 wisely used, we shall fail to solve 

 our national forest prol)leni. If for- 

 estry is not practiced generally and 

 soon on private forest lands, then 

 this country, well within the li\'es 

 of many of us, will he in part, and 

 possibly in large part, dependent 

 upon other countries for its timber 

 supply. If we do not raise enough 

 wood for our needs, then the time 

 inevitably will come when we must 

 buy it elsewhere, as do England 

 and Italy and Spain — for we can- 

 not go without. This will mean 

 the pinch of higher prices for wood 

 and all its products, which all of us 

 must feel. 



So herein lies, as I see it, the 

 next great task inunediately before 

 the moN'ement for forest conserva- 

 tion in the United States — ^to get a 

 prompt and real beginning nuide 

 in the right handling of forest lands 

 in pri\ate ownership. If the continuance and extension of a 

 vigorous campaign by state and federal agencies, for educating 

 pri\ate forest owners to the ad\antages of forestry will ac- 

 complish adetiuate residts soon enough, then the money to 

 conduct this campaign will be wisely spent. But if education 

 fails to assure the general application of forestry to private 

 lands in the near future, then the Nation nuist turn to the 

 regulation of lumbering on j)rivate lands in order to save our 

 forests; and to a form of regulation embodied in law which 

 while fair to the lumberman, is also fair to the forests, and 

 thus fair to the American people, whose welfare is inseparably 

 bound uj) with the maintenance of a permanent wood suj^ply 

 sufficient for our needs and grown witliin our own country. 



Herein lies, in my judgment, tlu' urgent task in forest 

 conser\ation immediately bt'fore us all. And we cannot face 

 it too s(juarcly or too soon. 



