102 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the local population and increase its ability to buy the products of 

 other regions. 



FORESTRY AND EMPLOYMENT 

 EMPLOYMENT IN FOREST INDUSTRIES IS DECREASING 



Forestry and the lumber industry directly employed an average of 

 650,000 workers in the United States in 1929. This did not include 

 the large amount of part-time work by 2,500,000 farmers who got 

 out wood and timber from their own land and worked it up for their 

 own use or hauled it to market. Another 650,000 were employed in 

 wood-working plants of various sorts and in the pulp and paper in- 

 dustry. The persons employed in the transportation and merchan- 

 dising of lumber and other forest products are not included in the 

 above figures. 



Employment in the forest and related industries has been decreas- 

 ing for more than 20 years. So far, this has been due only in small 

 part to increased output per man. The principal reason is the 

 decrease in total output. For instance, the number of wage earners 

 employed in what the Bureau of Census classifies as "the principal 

 lumber industries" decreased 23 percent between 1909 and 1929, 

 while the output of sawed lumber decreased 17 percent. In 1899 

 the ratio of total lumber cut to number of wage earners in logging- 

 camps and sawmills was 85,000 board feet per man. In 1909 the 

 ratio fell to 81,000 feet, and in 1919 to 72,000. In 1929 it rose to 

 88,000 feet. It is quite possible that the future will see considerable 

 technological advance in the processes of harvesting and fabricating 

 wood products, and that this will tend to reduce the quantity of labor 

 per unit of output. 



FORESTRY WILL HELP TO STABILIZE EMPLOYMENT 



To the extent that this takes place, and to the extent that a de- 

 creased output represents a reduction in our capacity to consume 

 timber products or to sell them abroad, a corresponding reduction in 

 employment must be expected. However, if we can eliminate the 

 wastes involved in the present system of forest exploitation and 

 migratory industries, there is reason to believe that it will be possible 

 to reduce costs and in the long run materially to increase the con- 

 sumption and export of timber products. If this should come about, 

 the forest industries might require an even larger number of workers 

 than are employed now. 



Whether or not total employment should increase, there are mani- 

 fest advantages in stability of employment in the various timber 

 regions. Permanently productive forests will not only give fairly 

 steady work in protecting and caring for the forest and harvesting 

 the crop, ^but they will also lead to the establishment in the 

 same vicinity of wood-using industries which will also employ many 

 workers. Although they may not contribute greatly toward reliev- 

 ing permanent technological unemployment in the urbanized indus- 

 trial regions, they will be very helpful in taking up the slack in the 

 immediate regions where they are located. 



