THE AMERICAN LUMBER INDUSTRY 95 



THE AMERICAN LUMBER INDUSTRY 



By Wilson Compton 

 Secretary and Manager of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association 



In the past the lumber industry has not been prominently identified 

 in the public mind with the forestry movement. Lumbermen and 

 dealers in products of the forest often regarded forest conservation- 

 ists as sentimentalists. There was a like disposition on the part of 

 conservationists to regard the lumber industry as indifferent to the 

 public problem resulting from the continuing exhaustion of the 

 forest resources. 



This situation has in large measure changed. The rapid depletion 

 of the forest resources; the economic stress caused by geographic 

 dislocation of supply and demand; the complication of higher trans- 

 portation costs and an aroused public sentiment have brought together 

 those agencies interested in the protection and recreation of forest 

 resources. Lumbermen, foresters, and conservationists, while fre- 

 quently differing on method, at least join together in advocating 

 policies designed to solve the now manifest common problem. 



The last fifteen or twenty years have been marked by a genuine 

 interest on the part of the lumber industry in the work of protecting 

 and improving our forest assets. Public cooperation has been sought 

 rather than avoided, and public confidence has been solicited by frank- 

 ness and facts. Standardization in sizes and grades of lumber has 

 been a noteworthy recent achievement. Improved methods of handling 

 and distribution have been adopted, and the industry has turned more 

 and more attention to the questions of utilization of wood as well as 

 the work of research into the physical and chemical properties of 

 forest products. Elimination of waste is a practical contribution which 

 the industry recognizes it can make to the solution of the forestry 

 problem. And it has definitely taken up consideration of reforestation 

 and sustained forest yield. 



The forests and their products, and, therefore, the industry that 

 handles them, are the backbone of our economic order, next to agri- 

 culture. In the building up of the United States wood has been 

 essential. It is today demanded by virtually every American industry. 

 The timber of the forests goes to make the American home, about 



