WOOD-GREATEST GIFT OF THE FOREST 141 



formulation of sound principles for the taxation of forest land. 

 It is a difficult, but very important problem. 



A great deal has been said and written on the evil caused 

 by this migratory, wasteful, and destructive method of lumber- 

 ing that in less than a hundred years has denuded region after 

 region of its forests often leaving them in such condition that 

 nature unaided will not be able to bring back trees. It is very 

 human to seek out some one class of men to blame for errors 

 in whose inception everyone is to blame. The lumberman has 

 long been held up as a waster who, for personal gain has rav- 

 aged a great public resource and jeopardized the future welfare 

 of a nation. As a matter of fact, the lumberman was the product 

 of his times and of his environment no less than any other 

 class. Times, conditions, national necessities, the state of our 

 public and political conscience all conspired. Perhaps it was 

 inevitable that we should pass through a period of wasteful 

 exploitation in order to learn our lesson. Nor is it well to forget 

 that at a time when the country demanded cheap and abundant 

 wood, and ever more wood, the lumber industry provided it. 

 Without wood and without the lumber industry, today the 

 third greatest industry in the country, the rapid expansion and 

 settlement of this country would have been quite impossible. 



The times called for rapid mass production of huge quan- 

 tities of lumber and these the mills provided. That they did so 

 at a great waste and left behind them wrecked forests belongs 

 to the times and to the needs of those times. Blaming any class 

 of men or any industry is always a futile and usually an unin- 

 telligent undertaking. The important thing is to make it 

 impossible for the public welfare to be jeopardized by any 

 class of men or by any industry. In the present case, it should 



