EDITORIAL 



295 



A 



men on a battle-field, or the earthquakes sell yon everything he can. You can 



of San Francisco or Sicily were devel- go into some parts of the country where 



opments. there is a demand for all of the wood, 



Individuals, it is true, may grow rich and you will find that they will strip 



by the processes in question, but incli- the forests clean; the lumberman goes 



viduals have likewise grown rich by in and gets all that he can get out of 



such calamities as those named. It is the saw logs ; the tie man follows him ; 



high time that statesmen occupied them- the paper 'pulp man follows him ; and 



selves with other considerations than the acid factory man follows him, and 



those pertaining to the enrichment of a there is nothing left bigger than my 



few individuals. The statesman, as his arrn ." Elsewhere, where there is no 



name implies, is supposed to be the niar ket for pulpwood, railroad ties or 



states man the representative of the ac } ( i factory wood, the lumberman is 



community, and of the public's interests. f orce d to l ea ve what he cannot sell. 

 As such, it ill becomes him to sacrifice But the novice asks. How are public 



those interests that a few masters, not interests then to be cared for? If the 



of the art of development but of that of lumberman's private interests lead him 



exploitation, may heap to themselves to desolate the forests and to leave the 



ill-gotten fortunes which mean the im- g rou nd covered with tops and high 



povenshment of the human race till the stumps, or to strip slopes and occasion 



floods, what shall the public do? 



% % & Very good. Such questions inevi- 



tably force themselves to the front. 



I he Community Must Care for Itself r ' t n i i ^u 



We are not likely to consider them too 



ND still we hear the lumberman ^, 



condemned! Usually from people he answer is The public must not 



new to the forestry idea," and beginning look to the individual for ** protection : 



for the first time to realize the tre- instead, it must look to itself. Its power 



mendous havoc wrought by wood- 1S far superior to that of any individ- 



users and destroyers, comes the protest ual - Its capacity for self-protection ex- 



against "private greed," "lack of pub- ceecls that of any man or collection of 



lie spirit" and the "vandalism" of the men. If it will not care for its own 



lumberman. affairs, it deserves to suffer, and will 



We need to remember that the him- suffer. We have long been taught that 



berman is very much like other people, the individual should, not expect the 



He is in business, as are others. Busi- community to carry him ; much less 



ness is conducted for profit. Those should the community expect the indi- 



who conform to business requirements v idual to carry it. The individual has 



win: those who fail to do so, lose. his own affairs to attend to . if the 



Competition, insofar as it still sur- affairs of the communitv are not to be 



vives takes care of that { d< as they tOQ IQ haye feeen 



In his speech at the Annual Meeting ignored if ^ nQt bg 



of Ihe American Forestry Association, .i_ 



Mr. Elliott of Pennsylvania emphasized ; nt the mir . e ' f m u countless '"stances 



this point. "The lumberman," he de- has been their fate < the community must 



clared, "is no fool." He utilizes what assert ltself : !t must stud - v its own case - 



he can sell. "If you buy from him all consider the grounds of its own well 



the wood there i's that "grows on the bein S and then, without hysteria, with- 



trees, the stump and even up to the out undue haste, without rancor, but 



twigs * * * he will clear it all out calmly, coolly, resolutely and energet- 



* and if you want to buy the ically proceed to mind its own business 



hole the stump stood in, he would sell and protect its own interests. In this 



you that * He is willing to way, and in this way only will its prob- 



