754 



THE REAL INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE 



WILLIAM GREEN 



Labor has a vital interest in the for- 

 ests and in what happens to them. 

 Forests mean jobs. Forest-based indus- 

 tries and activities support more than 

 2 million workers and their families in 

 the United States loggers in the 

 woods, workers in sawmills and planing 

 mills and lumber yards, in pulp and 

 paper and rayon mills and processing 

 plants, in furniture factories, cooperage 

 plants, box plants, in naval stores, and 

 in other forest-products industries. 



Indirectly, the forests contribute to 

 the support of additional millions of 

 workers railroad workers, printers, 

 factory workers. The transportation, 

 wholesaling, and retailing of commodi- 

 ties made wholly or partly from forest 

 products mean still more jobs. 



The interest of organized labor in 

 the Nation's forests, however, goes far 

 beyond their value as a source of em- 

 ployment. Workers are also consumers, 

 and they have the same interests in a 

 steady flow of forest products as any 

 other consumers. They want homes; 

 they want the things forests give that 

 make for comfortable and pleasant liv- 

 ing. And they want these things at 

 prices they can afford to pay. 



Workers also are interested in the 

 recreational value of the forests. The 

 practice of vacations and holidays 

 with pay has become almost universal 

 throughout American industry. Hun- 

 dreds of thousands of workers spend 

 much of their vacation and holiday 

 leisure in the forests, picnicking, camp- 

 ing, hiking, hunting, and fishing. As 

 increasing production efficiency and 

 rising living standards bring more leis- 

 ure time, the need for such recrea- 

 tional opportunities will grow. 



Most forest industries in this country 

 grew up on the exploitation of virgin 

 timber. As the timber was cut out in 

 one locality, operators moved on to an- 

 other. The workers had to move on, 

 too, or else be left jobless in a commu- 



nity that was apt to go into rapid 

 decline after its principal economic 

 support had departed. 



Workers in the forest industries are 

 no different from other people in their 

 desire for the things that make life 

 good. They want to live in homes of 

 their own, rather than migrate from 

 camp to camp. They want to bring up 

 their children in a wholesome environ- 

 ment. They want to have a part in the 

 life of their community. But they can- 

 not look forward to these things if their 

 jobs are based on cut-out-and-get-out 

 operations. 



A STEADY FLOW of forest products 

 can come only from steadily producing 

 forests. Permanent employment in all 

 the industries and trades that depend 

 on forest products can come only from 

 steadily producing forests. Yet the bulk 

 of our forest land is not being managed 

 for steady production. Official reports 

 show that we are taking saw timber 

 from the forests faster than it grows. 

 A declining resource certainly is not a 

 basis for expanding industry and em- 

 ployment. It cannot continue indefi- 

 nitely to support even the present level 

 of employment and production. 



Building up our forest lands to full 

 productiveness will increase the oppor- 

 tunities for permanent employment. 

 Forest improvement is a capital invest- 

 ment. It will furnish more security for 

 present forest industries and the people 

 who work in them, and will build up a 

 resource base for additional employ- 

 ment. 



ORGANIZED LABOR has for a long time 

 recognized the value of a comprehen- 

 sive program to conserve the Nation's 

 timberland. Almost annually, the con- 

 vention of the American Federation of 

 Labor has gone on record as favoring 

 the development of an over-all forestry 

 program. 



