NAVAL STORES BECOME CHEMICALS 



working trees under nine inches in diameter. Jay Ward, 

 in charge of this conservation program, reported last 

 year that $9,000,000 had been paid out. That averages 

 $6,000 to each of the South's fifteen hundred gum pro- 

 ducers. No wonder that the turpentine farmers clamored 

 insistently for continued conservation benefits, though 

 they knew very well if they but stopped to think- 

 that restricted output and high ceiling prices would 

 further encourage the use of substitutes for turpentine 

 and rosin in the paint, varnish, paper, soap, linoleum, 

 and other industries. 



In this respect the gum farmers were no more wise, 

 no less selfish, than the cotton planters, or for that 

 matter any organized group which during depression 

 and war has taken advantage of abnormal economic 

 conditions to grasp immediate benefits or to worm 

 themselves into temporary positions. From the long- 

 haul point of view, to get while the getting is good is 

 seldom sound policy, and yet the conservation pay- 

 ments have had certain effects of permanent value. 

 They have encouraged more careful chipping and 

 cleaner collecting, and given the gum farmer ready 

 cash, enabling him to get out of debt and putting him 

 in a position to meet the revolution through which he 

 is now swirling. 



The other part of the Government relief program, 

 loans from the Commodity Credit Corporation, were 

 handled through the American Turpentine Farmers' 



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