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a national forestry policy by telling the people how vitally necessary it is 

 to them. It is also conducting a campaign for memorial tree planting and 

 for roads of remembrance which is the road side planting of trees as me- 

 morials to the heroes of the great war. I hear some good foresters say that 

 it is not forestry. Before you can become initiated into the mysteries of 

 where the milk comes from you must first get acquainted with the cow. 

 Before you can hope to enjoy the delights of Shakespeare you must 

 first give some thought to the construction of the English language. Be- 

 fore the producer puts on a play he spends thousands of dollars in an 

 endeavor to get an audience for that play. Before you foresters can ever 

 hope to interest the public, which is the court of last resort in this country 

 in a national forest policy, you have got to interest that public in a tree. 



"That is just what the American Forestry association is doing. The 

 response on the part of the editors has been magnificent As a result the 

 people are planting trees as never before, as memorials to the man who 

 gave his life or offered his life to his country. I could recite here hun- 

 dreds of places where trees are being planted. Roads of remembrance are 

 being laid out and memorial groves and parks being planted. Does anyone 

 doubt that those people will listen with a ready ear to the reasons for a 

 national forest policy? They are getting acquainted with a tree. As a re- 

 sult you will be able to talk trees to them. 



"If the people of the United States want to erect a real monument, a 

 lasting memorial for all time, in honor of Theodore Roosevelt, let them 

 mark his birthday next Monday, October 27, by starting to work in earnest 

 for a national forest policy. You can celebrate 'the coming of age,' the 

 twenty-first anniversary of forestry being taught in a college, in no better 

 way than by taking the public in on the celebration. 



"You gentlemen are the ones to take the lead. Some of you represent 

 forestry and some of you the lumber industry. Get together first on a 

 fire protection policy. Then get together on other features of a national 

 forest policy. Let me quote just a paragraph from the opening address of 

 Mr. Roosevelt, the then president, to the congress of governors in 1908. I 

 quote, 'Every step of the progress of mankind is marked by the discovery 

 and use of natural resources previously unused. Without such progressive 

 knowledge and utilization of natural resources population could not grow, 

 new industries multiply, nor the hidden wealth of the earth be developed 

 for the benefit of mankind. We want to take action that will prevent the 

 advent of a woodless age and defer as long as possible the advent of an 

 ironless age.' Those words have even greater weight today, since a world 

 war has made such inroads on our resources, than the day they were spoken. 

 Call your findings the Roosevelt Memorial National Forestry Policy if 

 you like the suggestion, and you will have honored the man who did so 

 much in pointing to the value of our forests. In any event, you will have 

 done the greatest of services to posterity you will have saved our greatest 

 natural resource for that posterity." (Applause) 



MR. BOOKWALTER: This evening just prior to my departure from 

 home I was talking to the members of my family about this particular 

 occasion. A member of my household was an officer in the late world war 

 and served in France. He said to me," Well, Dad, if those men down there 



