CHAPTER I 



FORESTRY AND THE PUBLIC 



TIMBER MEANS PAY CHECKS 



Forest wealth is community wealth. The public's interest 

 in it i& affected very little by the passage of timber lands 

 into private ownership, for all the owner can get out of 

 them is the stumpage value. The people get everything 

 else. Our forests earn nothing except by being cut and 

 shipped to the markets of the world. Of the price received 

 for them usually much less than a fifth is received by the 

 owner. Nearly all goes to pay for labor and supplies here 

 at home. 



Even now, when the western lumber industry is insignifi- 

 cant compared to what it will lie soon, it brings over $125,- 

 000,000 a year into these five states. This immense revenue 

 flows through every artery of labor, commerce and agricul- 

 ture ; in the open farming countries as well as in the timbered 

 districts. It is shared alike by laborer, farmer, merchant, 

 artisan and professional man. It is their greatest source of 

 income, for lumber is the chief product which, being sold else- 

 where, actually brings in outside money. 



That it is essential to the prosperity of every citizen to have 

 this contribution to his livelihood continue requires no argu- 

 ment. From the manufacturing point of view alone, our 

 forest resources are as important to everyone of us as to the 

 lumberman, and in many ways more so, for if they are ex- 

 hausted he can move or change his business, while the de- 

 pendent industries cannot. But our welfare is at stake in a 

 dozen other ways also. 



