95 



I do not believe that any quasi-public organization, be it commercial, 

 social or labor organization, will be long tolerated or should be tolerated 

 which can not demonstrate that the public welfare as well as the 

 interest of its members, is advanced through its activities. 



The organization executive of serious purpose realizes that he directs 

 a vehicle of powerful influence for good or evil. He is confronted on all 

 sides today with evidences of the misuse of that power by thoughtless and 

 irresponsible organization leaders. 



The menace of the destructive possiblities of purely selfish or misguided 

 organizations has awakened the conservative organization leader to a new 

 sense of his responsibility in the social and economic fabric. 



You will find these organizations eager to devote time and money 

 and effort to such public spirited activities as your State Departments are 

 now fostering. You will find the Lumber Dealers' Organization eager to be 

 of service in forest conservation projects. 



Of course, the details of their participation will have to be carefully 

 worked out, but it would seem to me that they might serve effectively in 

 conducting a survey of timber areas in each of the local communities and 

 that they could report also areas that could be more profitably devoted to 

 timber crops than to agriculture. 



Second, they could conduct educational campaigns against uneconomic 

 and destructive methods of utilizing wood lot products. 



Year after year the retail lumberman has sat placidly by and watched 

 his farmer patrons sacrifice potential fortunes in young hardwood timber, 

 in the belief that tamarack, cedar, locust or cement fence posts were too 

 high priced. 



The Retail Lumber Organization should combat these practices by educa- 

 tional campaigns in reference to commercial value the present and the 

 prospective value, of various species and growths of timber. 



I see no reason why the Lumber Organizations should not go further 

 than this, and even become owners of timber conservation tracts in their 

 respective communities. 



Commercial and social organizations responded loyally to the "Buy-a- 

 Bale-of-Cotton" campaign some years ago. Why should they not respond 

 just as readily to the "Own-a-Tract-of-Timber" campaign. 



I feel sure that the local lumber dealers' clubs and district organizations 

 at least could be interested in such a campaign. Such co-operative owner- 

 ship and enterprise would give them, for one thing, a property nucleus, 

 which would go far toward insuring a live, permanent interest in the organ- 

 ization. 



Areas that should be in timber to prevent erosion can generally be 

 bought very cheaply. When such tracts are disclosed in the association 

 survey to which I have alluded, they should be bought up, if necessary, 

 by the organizations of lumbermen. 



There is an instance in point at the present time in my own county in 

 Ohio. A large and well-timbered farm, known as the John Bryan farm, has 

 been bequeathed to the state for a game and forest reservation. But a 

 provision was stipulated by the eccentric donor that there should never 

 be any religious services conducted on the premises. 



