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MR. WALTER CRIM : Gentlemen of the conservation conference and 

 distinguished guests, we are certainly very glad to see this liberal turn-out 

 this evening in honor of the movement inaugurated by Indiana, Illinois 

 and Ohio in conserving the forests of our states. This is an opportune 

 time to start a movement of this kind and as usual, Indiana is glad to be 

 in the foreground with the assistance of her sister states. 



I don't know why you should pick a lumberman to start the ball rolling 

 tonight. But I am glad to say that our entire Board of Directors is here 

 in a body attending this meeting. No movement of this kind is successful 

 without a good ringmaster. In Indiana we have had many orators and 

 writers but we have kept the best at home and I am very glad to introduce 

 the Honorable Charles Bookwalter, who will take charge of this meeting. 

 (Applause) 



MR. BOOKWALTER: As I look over this illustrious and dignified 

 array of talent, I feel that this limited program that I hold here in my 

 hand somewhat checks the possibilities of the evening's festivities because 

 as the majority of you are from Indiana, and Hoosiers being orators, it 

 may take us until the wee small hours to get everything said that we want 

 to say. 



I suppose all of you think that to make everything fitting and proper, we 

 should open up with a talk by the Governor. I am almost in bad because 

 I insisted that he should make a few remarks and he insisted that he 

 should not be called upon, so I am going to keep faith with him. But I 

 will say that this bland gentleman sitting at my right presides over the des- 

 tinies of the state of Indiana. 



The toastmaster is not expected to make a speech, but as soon as I 

 get on my feet, I readily fall into my weakness of talking too much. But 

 I am not going to do that tonight, although I would like to talk about your 

 problems. Some of my kind friends tell me that I can talk more at length 

 and most entertainingly on those subjects which I know nothing about. 

 (Laughter) I am sorry to confess that I know nothing about forestry 

 except what I have learned as a businessman of the world. 



Indiana, Illinois and Ohio are the very garden spots of the world. But 

 I do watch these things as I pass through life and I have thought of these 

 problems and I have read about them. I am not going to abuse the lumber- 

 man. He is not guilty of destruction except when he cuts indiscriminately 

 he only cuts what the necessities of man compel him to cut. We must 

 reserve, not so much preserve, but we must replace the timber that we are 

 using now. 



Yesterday I came down from northern Indiana. I had gone up in 

 Wabash county on a business trip and as we were driving back we 

 passed an eighty-acre woods. It was just as God had planted it it had 

 never been cut at all and nothing in it had been touched. I said to my 

 friend, Charlie Greathouse, who was with me. "Look at that ; isn't it won- 

 derful?" "Yes," he said, "that is a remarkable woods." We stopped our 

 car and sat in silence just looking at that magnificent picture. 



All of the land in this part of the country was at one time covered with 

 forests just like the one that we stopped to look at, but this wonderful 

 Country has been stripped bare. We must not continue to do this without 



