And State Papers 427 



Here that question does not enter in. The lumber- 

 ing interest is the fourth great business interest in 

 point of importance in the United States. There is 

 engaged in it a capital of over six hundred millions 

 of dollars, and every year the wage-workers in that 

 industry receive one hundred millions of dollars. 

 Such an industry so vitally connected with many 

 others in the country can not with wisdom be neg- 

 lected, the interests depending upon it are too vast. 

 I do not have to say here in Washington that fire is 

 a great enemy of the forests. Here in Washington 

 it is probable that fire has destroyed more than the 

 axe during the decade in which the axe has been at 

 work. 



Our aim should be to get the fullest use from 

 the forest to-day, and yet to get that benefit in ways 

 which will keep the forests for our children in the 

 generations to come ; so that, for instance, the coun- 

 try adjoining Puget Sound shall have the lumber- 

 ing industry as a permanent industry. Recently 

 the trade journals of that industry have been dwell- 

 ing upon the fact that its very existence is actually 

 at stake, and nowhere in the whole country can the 

 question of forestry be handled better than in this 

 region, because nowhere else is it so easy to produce 

 a second crop. You are fortunate in having such 

 climatic conditions, such conditions of soil, that here 

 more than anywhere else the forest renews itself 

 quickly, so as in a comparatively short number of 

 years to be again a great mercantile and industrial 

 asset. The preservation of our forests depends 



