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I AMERICAN FORESTRY I 



VOL. 27 



AUGUST, 1921 



EDITORIAL 



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NO. 332 



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PROPOSED TARIFF ON LUMBER 



"TiECLARING that he is opposed to any tariff on lum- 

 -' ber Charles Lathrop Pack, President of the Amer- 

 ican Forestry Association, in a statement to President 

 Harding has pointed out the several reasons why he be- 

 lieves that Congress should not impose such a traiff. 



Mr. Pack believes that with the country in vital need 

 of at least a million homes and quite as many, if not more, 

 farm buildings, any tariff which would add to the cost 

 of construction would result in serious delay in solving 

 the housing problem and the equally important need of 

 buildings for agricultural purposes. He believes that 

 now is the time to build because it is certain that prices 

 of lumber will increase as the years go by to such an ex- 

 tent that unless adequate housing is now provided it will 

 be seriously retarded by growing costs. 



He also believes that any tariff which will add to the 

 cost of paper is inadvisable because it will material^ 



affect the production of newspapers, magazines, and 

 books, the greatest educational mediums in the country. 



Another reason advanced in opposition to the tariff 

 by Mr. Pack is his belief that no restrictions should be 

 made against the use of the natural resources of any 

 country by the United States when such natural re- 

 sources of its own are being steadily decreased l.-y our 

 constant use of them. 



Finally he declares that our own forests are being 

 depleted at such a rate that it will be false economy to 

 adopt any measure which would increase the demands 

 upon them when such demands can be supplied by im- 

 portation from other countries. The time is now here, 

 he says, when we have awakened to a realization of the 

 serious situation brought about by our diminishing for- 

 est areas and our failure to provide means for perpetuat-r. 

 ing our forests so that they will provide for our present 

 as well as our future needs. 



WHAT DOES THE 



'T^HERE are now before Congress two so-called Na- 

 - tional Forestry Bills; the Snell-McCormick Bill, 

 which has been frequently discussed in American For- 

 estry Magazine, and the bill recently introduced by Sen- 

 ator Capper. In the main the objects which these bills 

 purpose to accomplish is the same the prevention of for- 

 est devastation by fire, and the creation of an effective 

 basis for reforestation throughout the country. The dif- 

 ference lies purely in the means suggested, the Capper 

 Bill proposing to place forest control chiefly and directly 

 in the hands of the Federal Government, while the Snell- 

 McCormick Bill urges upon the several states their plain 

 duty and provides machinery for Federal example and 

 cooperation in a manner similar to the operation of the 

 Federal good roads laws. Foresters disagree in the same 

 way that railway economists have for years disagreed 

 upon matters of railway ownership and control. Federal 

 control versus State Rights and interests has formed the 

 basis of a thousand such controversies since the first in- 



PUBLIC WANT? 



ception of our democracy, and will continue to do so. 

 It is not for a group or society of the scope of the 

 American Forestry Association to deprecate any methoc' 

 of accomplishing the desired end, nor to put forward an 

 other plan as being without flaw. Through our members 

 in every part of the United States we are interested solely 

 in achieving a practical and economic forest policy. That 

 there are other ideas and plans for accomplishment of 

 that end serves only to emphasize the fundamental issuft, 

 and a thorough discussion of the problem will best satisfy- 

 the paramount interest of the public. What the public 

 wants is not just a Snell-McCormick Bill or a Capper 

 Bill, but an honest forward-looking forest policy. The 

 American Forestry Association strives to represent that 

 public interest, and believes that it is doing so in endorsing 

 and advocating the Snell-McCormick Bill because it is the 

 bill endorsed and desired by the United States Forest 

 Service, whose function it is to know what is best fr>- 

 the forestry interests of the country. 



FORESTRY FOR CHILDREN 



"WT OMEN of Tennessee, aroused by the agitation in make, eyery citizen of the next and succeeding genera- 



" behalf of forestry, both relating to the states and tions, a forest conservationist, 

 nationally, have accomplished what is not only an innova- This is nothing less than an "act to require and pro- 

 tion in forestry legislation, but an achievement which will mote the study of forestry and kindred subjects in the 



