AMERICAN FORESTRY 



303 



CALL EDITORS TO UNITE FOR FOREST POLICY 



HA.RD pressed by the newsprint 

 shortage the newspapers from all 

 parts of the country are calling for 

 action on a national forest policy 

 under the banner of the American 

 Forestry Association. Various edi- 

 torial views of the editors follow: 



Louisville Courier- Journal: The news- 

 paper cannot use substitutes for paper ! 



Pulpwood is being sold at $25 a cord 

 in Canada. Pulpwood is being shipped 

 500 miles to mills, and paper is shipped 

 much further to consumers. Within twen- 

 ty years, in the opinion of the American 

 Forestry Association, the pulpwood supply 

 of New England and the Lake States will 

 be about gone. Forestry, as a national 

 enterprise, as a State enterprise, as a pro- 

 ject of private owners of lands, must be 

 undertaken vigorously that the supply of 

 the kinds of timber suitable for paper mak- 

 ing and the more numerous varieties suit- 

 able for lumber shall be renewed faster 

 than consumed. 



Salt Lake Tribune: The American For- 

 estry Association of Washington is cam- 

 paigning for a national forest policy and 

 will get it if the right kind of men are 

 elected to the two Houses of Congress. 

 Under present conditions, the newspapers 

 of the United States are experiencing 

 great difficulty in supplying their readers 

 with the news of the day, owing to the 

 shortage of print paper. According to 

 figures given out by the Forestry Associa- 

 tion, this is what has happened to the pulp 

 wood industry : 



The use of pulpwood in the manufacture 

 of news-print paper has been developed 

 only in the last fifty years. Of all the 

 paper used in the United States, 22 per 

 cent is used by the newspapers. 



Before the war, news-print paper sold 

 for about two cents a pound, now it sells 

 in large quantities for five cents a pound, 

 and in small quantities up to ten cents a 

 pound. 



Evidently it is high time we adopted a 

 national forest policy. There has been 

 entirely too much waste in times past and 

 the work of reforestation has not been 

 prosecuted as vigorously as it should have 

 been. The problem is one of great mo- 

 ment, and should not be sidetracked by 

 senators and representatives in favor of 

 questions which smell of politics. The 

 newspapers of the country should unite in 

 demanding action. Relief will come quick- 

 ly enough if pressure of this kind is applied. 



Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Those 

 who wonder why the price of paper is so 

 high, and why it seems to be going higher 

 all the time, can find an answer to the 

 questions in their minds from some sta- 

 tistics made available by the American 

 Forestry Association. This organization 

 is campaigning for a national forest policy. 



While the news-print shortage is a 

 problem of great magnitude in itself, it is 

 but one factor in the forest equation. The 

 fundamental fact that must be borne in 

 mind, and the basis of the Forestry Asso- 

 ciation's campaign, is that the forests are 

 rapidly disappearing. If nothing is done 

 to replace something of what is gone and 

 conserve that which remains, the time is 

 near at hand when timber for all purposes 

 will practically be unobtainable. It is 

 against this deplorable condition that the 

 Forestry Association's campaign is direct- 

 ed. It deserves universal support, and it is 

 to be hoped that it will be successful. 



Gadsden, Ala., Journal: Why are the 

 rates, circulation and subscription, for 

 newspapers advancing? Because of the 

 scarcity of news-print paper. Why is 

 news-print paper becoming scarce? An- 

 swer to the latter question is given in a 

 convincing manner in a bulletin issued by 

 the American Forestry Association. The 

 remedy lies in several directions. In the 

 first place, there must be further conserva- 

 tion of the present supply of paper. Then, 

 there are the methods suggested by the 

 Forestry Association, as follows : by devel- 

 oping the industry in the Northwest and 

 in Alaska; by perpetuating forests in tim- 

 ber in them; possibly by the collection 

 and repulping of newspaper and its reuse 

 by mixing with it new pulp. 



Watertown, N. Y., Standard: Some 

 startling statements were made at a re- 

 cent meeting of the American Forestry 

 Association. The most surprising was the 

 declaration of President Charles Lathrop 

 Pack that 25 to 30 years is the limit of 

 which our forests will hold out under the 

 present drain. As alarming as this is, the 

 country is paying but little attention to it. 

 In 1904, President Roosevelt gave the first 

 clarion call for woods conservation. Six- 

 teen years have passed, but this government 

 as yet has no definite forestry policy. It 

 is the only civilized country that has none. 



lishments that use wood in some form, to 

 over seven hundred thousand wage earners. 



Manufacturing establishments using 

 wood pay out annually over a billion dol- 

 lars for raw material. The value of the 

 wood-using industries is slightly more than 

 doubled by the process of refinement at the 

 hands of more than a million wage earners. 



These are huge figures and their very 

 magnitude makes them difficult of ready 

 perception. But in no other way perhaps 

 can the greatness and wealth represented 

 by the wood-using industries of the coun- 

 try be pointed out. One inhabitant out of 

 every 100 forming the hundred million pop- 

 ulation of the United States is a wage 

 earner whose earnings depend upon the 

 uninterrupted supply of raw material from 

 the forest. 



Des Moines Capital: American For- 

 estry Magazine data shows that the raw 

 material that supports a large share of our 

 industries comes from forests. Work is 

 given by the 276,000 manufacturing estab- 



Indianapolis News: The donation by the 

 American Forestry Association of 35,000,- 

 000 tree seeds to Great Britain, France, 

 Belgium and Italy for the rehabilitation of 

 forests sacrificed in the war, is a note- 

 worthy episode in America's post-war re- 

 lations with Europe. The recipients of the 

 gift are reported as deeply impressed with 

 its value. Europe, of course, has long 

 since realized the value of forests. It cut 

 them away for war purposes with the 

 greatest reluctance, and it has set about 

 restoring them as one of the first acts of 

 reconstruction. 



It is significant that an association 

 formed primarily for the purpose of es- 

 tablishing a sensible American forestry 

 policy should be able to provide such nec- 

 essary help to countries that have already 

 proved the value of state supervised for- 

 estry activities. In so promptly providing 

 these seeds, the Association has shown that 

 it is prepared to help America, but if 

 America insists on stumbling along in the 

 dark, as it has since attention was called 

 to the condition of its forests, the Associa- 

 tion is just as ready to help friendly na- 

 tions until the United States can be made 

 to see the magnitude of its mistake. 



Forty years from now American travel- 

 ers in Europe will find many forests serv- 

 ing an admirable economic and esthetic 

 purpose upon ground which today has been 

 cut over. They will praise France, Bel- 

 gium and other countries for their fore- 

 sight in attending to reforestation as soon 

 after the war as possible. Meanwhile, the 

 United States is neglecting just such an 

 opportunity, but not entirely, for here and 

 there are signs of genuine public interest in 

 forests, and Indiana is fortunate in being 

 among the states which have made a fair 

 beginning toward a definite policy. 



