I do not believe you will challenge the statement when 

 I say that the hardwood industry stands out prominently 

 as the one factor in the industrial world of this country 

 which has made the least progress. We are today making 

 hardwood lumber just exactly as it was made one hundred 

 years ago. There are a few improvements in the methods of 

 transportation of the logs to the mill but the same principles 

 are there that carry it through the saw, out into the yard, 

 to the railroad car and off to the ultimate consumer. That 

 is not true of any other branch of the lumber industry, the 

 yellow pine, fir, cedar, cypress or white pine. We are bound 

 to acknowledge that they have accomplished far more than 

 we have, notwithstanding the statements of some of the 

 most eminent men in the industry to the contrary. The 

 time is at hand when we must recognize the fact that the 

 hour for progress is here and that a step forward must be 

 made. I hail with delight the great thought that came as 

 an inspiration from the Secretary of Commerce when he 

 caught the vision that it was necessary for the United 

 States Government through one of its department heads to 

 tell the lumber industry of the country that they must come 

 and sit at his table and listen to what he was giving to the 

 world. 



I was fortunate to be asked as a representative of the 

 American Hardwood Manufacturers' Association to that 

 conference and I must acknowledge that the great vision I 

 got in the few moments of the early part of that pro- 

 gram revealing to me the surety and certainty and the ab- 

 solute soundness of my thoughts on the same subject years 

 ago, and that I have expressed wherever I could, that we 

 have failed in the past to take into account the great public 

 which must be protected by our Federal authorities. We 

 have all along neglected that great factor. We have only 

 considered from a selfish standpoint the quickest way to get 

 the money and the results. We have lost sight of the great 

 consuming public and today we are confronted in my opin- 

 ion with the great thought that I expressed a moment ago, 

 that it is the business of the United States Government to 

 protect its people and I believe I express the sentiments of 

 every hardwood manufacturer in the United States when he 



23 



