38 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



It should serve as a sound basis for a balanced economic and social 

 structure, which would help to retain in the country a reasonable 

 proportion of the population and help ^ to offset the long-continued 

 movement from the country to the cities. Such a combined forest 

 and agricultural economy should be as nearly depression-proof as 

 any now known. 



SOLUTION ONE MEANS TO NATIONAL WELL-BEING AND TO INTER- 

 NATIONAL COMPETITION 



The economic and social development which is most highly ad- 

 vantageous for many local regions should prove equally so for the 

 country as a whole. 



Abundance of raw resources, including land and timber, has been 

 one of the chief factors in the phenomenal growth of the United States. 

 Their continued availability should be of equal or even more value in 

 the future. 



Many tendencies indicate for the future an increasingly severe 

 competition between nations in manufactured products. A great 

 advantage should lie with the nations having excess supplies of valua- 

 ble raw products, like wood which other nations need and cannot 

 grow. The distinct probability that there will be such a need for 

 coniferous woods particularly has already been pointed out. 



What is true of national needs and of international competition in 

 peace is much more vitally true in time of war. 



SOLUTION NOT ONLY JUSTIFIED BUT IS ONE OF MAJOR NATIONAL 



PROBLEMS 



The 670 million acres of forest and abandoned agricultural land 

 now available for forestry is more than one third of the total land 

 area of the United States. As shown in figure 17, it exceeds by 120 

 million acres the entire area east of the Mississippi. It is more than 

 half again as large as the area now devoted to farm crops (fig. 18). 

 It exceeds the combined areas of France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, 

 Spain, and Italy^fig. 19). 



When to possible benefits of utilizing this vast area of land are 

 added those of maintaining great forest and other industries in pre- 

 petuity, of employment for a large number of laborers, of a balanced 

 rural and social economy, of the advantages of national well-being, 

 and of a favorable position for^ international competition, the forest 

 problem justifies a rating well in the forefront of our great national 

 problems. 



The effort which should be made on the forest problem should be 

 rated along with those past, present, or proposed on the Panama 

 Canal, which to date has cost more than $500,000,000; the Hoover 

 Dam, for which $165,000,000 has been authorized; the river and 

 harbor improvements, for which nearly $2,000,000,000 has been 

 expended by the Federal Government alone; the proposed St. Law- 

 rence waterway, the cost of which is estimated at $252,000,000; and 

 even the public highway system, the annual expenditures for which 

 rose from $1,000,000,000 iii 1921 to $2,000,000,000 in 1930. 



