FORESTERS AND LUMBERMEN HOME FROM FRANCE 



1189 



A LARGE LOAD OF MARITIME PINE LOGS OX AN AMERICAN MOTOR TRUCK IN SOUTHWESTERN FRANCE 



ity of the mills to cut even as much as the rated capacity. 

 Peasants dependent upon the resin industry were fright- 

 ened for fear that the Americans would destroy their 

 means of livelihood by cutting too much timber. Timber 

 merchants who hoped to sell timber to the Americans 

 at fabulous prices were having their toes pinched by that 

 effective steam roller — the requisition — which took the 

 timber required at a reasonable price fixed by the French 

 forest officers. Complaints were heard in the French 

 Chamber of Deputies (corresponding to the Congress of 



the United States). The officers of the regiment were 

 reminded of the early days of the Forest Service in 

 America, when certain senators and congressmen were 

 accustomed to make the most wild and ridiculous state- 

 ments in the halls of Congress about the work of the 

 Forest Service. Among the alleged acts of the Ameri- 

 cans were the devastating of enormous areas of timber 

 land by unrestricted cutting, the clearing of camp sites 

 by the use of fire which escaped and ran for miles, and 

 other equally indefensible acts. One of the chief mourn- 



. 20th REGIMENT MEN TRANSPORTING LOGS, BY MEANS OF "BIG WHEELS," TO THE BANK OF THE COURANT RIVER, AUREILHAN 



OPERATION, NEAR PONTENX, LANDES, FRANCE 



