iV Dkcexxiai. Hkcoru 12.) 



the present time — not alone those of America, l)ut of the whole world 

 as it strives to get hack to normal industry. It is an old and simple 

 axiom : Aside from the will to work which is the foremost quality of 

 any strong nation, its economic and social progress depends in the long 

 run upon the foresight and efficiency Avith which its natural resources 

 are used. 



This is simply an attempt to restate, crudely and partially, the 

 conception of national conservation which was embodied in our public 

 thought and policies by President Roosevelt fifteen years ago. It is 

 the viewpoint of the public welware in the long run which two great 

 leaders, President Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, brought to bear 

 upon our forest resources, our national water powers, and our national 

 deposits of coal and oil. The Forest Products Laboratory at Madi- 

 son, which now completes its first decade, stands as a visible and prac- 

 tical expression of the thought of these leaders in the field of forest 

 conservation. To make the most of our forest resources Mr. Pinchot 

 and his associates foresaw that knowledge of the use of w^ood must 

 progress hand in hand with the national movement to assure a sufficient 

 supply of this essential raw material. Each liad an integral part in 

 forest conservation. It was not enough to create National Forests in 

 which the Federal Government might embark in the ])usiness of timber 

 production and to assist the private owner in keeping his woodlands 

 productive. It ^vas equally necessary to build up a })ractical science 

 of wood use, — to determine how to get the right stick into the right 

 place where its strength or dura])ility would count for the most ; how^ 

 to make one railroad tie do the work of two or three, by prolong- 

 ing its life and service; how to utilize the enormous quantities of waste 

 material in our forests and sawmills; liow to reduce manufacturing 

 losses and better the methods of employing wood in the infinite number 

 of American industries M^hich require it, from the paper mill to the 

 automoljile factory; and what fresh supplies of wood could be found 

 for this or that industry as old sources of raw material were exliausted. 

 The Forest Products Laboratory was built liy men who saw that to 

 answer these questions and others like them was as necessary as to 

 stop forest fires ; that the w^ood technician in the factory must supple- 

 ment the woodsman in the forest. And they not only built tlie I^a])- 

 oratory as an efficient unit of itself; they built it into and made it part 

 of one of the most virile and far-sighted movements toward using nat- 



