Our Forests in Time of War 1 



" ALTHOUGH the bulk of the forests contributes 

 l\ largely to the peaceful development of our coun- 

 * * try, the part which forests play in the time of 

 war cannot be disregarded." so said the Forestry Com- 

 mittee at the meeting of the Conservation Congress in 

 Washington early in May. The committee added: 

 "Wood enters in large quantities in the manufacture of 

 powders, particularly of the ordinary black powder. In 

 spite of the advent of smokeless powders, enormous 

 quantities of black powder are still used in the making of 

 shrapnel and in the manufacture of most armor-piercing 

 shells. Rosin, another product of the forest, is also 

 employed in the manufacture of shrapnel in filling the 

 spaces between the bullets. There are also indications 

 that wood is being used in the production of smokeless 

 powder. The famous English chemist. Sir William Ram- 

 sey, is of the opinion that the Germans are now using 

 wood to obtain nitro-cellulose in the manufacture of the 

 propellent explosive. If this is true, then wood cellulose 

 has taken the place of guncotton in the manufacture of 

 smokeless powder. Acetone, which is used in the manu- 

 facture of propellent explosives for all calibers of guns, 

 is a product of the destructive distillation of hardwoods. 

 Since from 75 to 100 tons of wood are required to pro- 

 duce one ton of acetone, enormous quantities may be 

 needed for this purpose alone. In addition to acetone, 

 alcohol is used to a large extent in the manufacture of 

 explosives and this again may be obtained from wood 

 cellulose. Wood is also used in surgery ; it is made into 

 a soft, surgical absorbent cotten, now in use in Ger- 

 many ; it is made into tough crepe paper and used for 

 slings, and into fiber boards for splints. 



"Although the forest area of the United States is esti- 

 mated at 550 million acres, a large portion of it has 

 been cut over, and the present area of standing timber 

 available for the manufacture of lumber cannot be over 

 300 million acres. Nearly half of the original stand 

 is already gone. One-third has been destroyed by for- 

 est fires, one-third cut and used, and one-third has 

 been wasted. About one-fifth of the standing timber is 

 publicly owned and four-fifths in private hands. The 

 most important of the public timber lands are in the 

 National Forests, aggregating 1G5 million acres, in the 

 Indian Reservations, aggregating 7 million acres, and 

 in forest reserves owned by various states, aggregating 

 upwards of Z l / 2 million acres. Most of the National 

 timber lands are largely in mountainous and in the less 

 accessible regions. 



"The annual growth of wood in the forests, most of 

 which is a matter of chance, while it cannot be defi- 

 nitely determined, is without question much less than 

 that of the amount used (100 billion board feet) and 

 'Extracts from the report of the Forestry Committee of the 



the country is drawing upon its forest capital to the 

 extent probably of many billions of feet each year. 



"The moving of the lumber industry from the place 

 which it has exhausted to another place where there is 

 a plentiful supply has been characteristic not only of 

 the lumber industry itself, but of the industries depend- 

 ing upon timber. It is evident that such a system of 

 development of our forest resources, while it may possi- 

 bly have helped to build up quickly all sections of the 

 country, has resulted in most cases in weakening the 

 local communities where the forest has originally been 

 found and increased the cost of lumber to the consumer. 

 This method of cutting has another drawback which may 

 become a source of great weakness in the time of 

 national stress. If, as our military friends point out, 

 in case of invasion by a foreign nation, our Pacific coast 

 should become cut off from the rest of our country, 

 the bulk of our timber resources would become inaccessi- 

 ble to us unless the southern and other timber regions 

 of the country are built up and placed on a permanent 

 basis. 



"Similarly, should the Southeast become the field of 

 invasion, our naval stores industry, so essential both in 

 the times of peace and of war, would be lost to us, and 

 we would have to depend on other portions of the coun- 

 try to secure our naval stores. This is just what hap- 

 pened during the Civil War when the North was forced 

 to tap the western yellow pine to secure the needed 

 supply of naval stores. 



TWO SOURCES OF WEAKNESS 



THE lack of permanency in our lumber industry 

 and the consequent failure to develop the timber 

 resources of various sections systematically and 

 en a permanent basis where agricultural development 

 is not replacing the forest, is also responsible largely 

 for creating conditions unfavorable for the employment 

 of labor. Because of the transient character of the in- 

 dustry nothing could be built but temporary camps or 

 shack towns. Few laborers who choose the logging 

 industry can ever expect to live in a permanent house. 

 Family life, therefore, is impossible to the majority of 

 employes in the industry. 



"Here again is a source of national weakness. Na- 

 tional interests demand care of the laborer. The human 

 product of the timber land is, as the history of our Revo- 

 lutionary and Civil Wars teaches us, one of the most 

 important assets in our national life. During our Civil 

 War the Southern Confederacy was 'practically cut in 

 two by the wedge of loyal mountaineers from the Appa- 

 lachian chain.' and they startled the nation on the scene of 

 this war by sending 180,000 of their riflemen into the 

 Union Army. The mountain men, unassisted, saved 

 National Conservation Congress which met in Washington in May. 



341 



