THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



617 



on December 4, 1907, M. J. J. Jus- 

 serand, French ambassador, said : "It 

 is an absolute principle no forests, no 

 waterways. Without forests, regulating 

 the distribution of waters, rainfalls are 

 at once carried to the sea, hurried some- 

 times, alas ! across the country. After 

 having devastated the neighboring 

 fields, the rivers find themselves again, 

 with little water and much sand ; and 

 with such rivers how will you fill your 

 canals? * * * The question is as clear 

 as can be : Do you want to have navi- 

 gable rivers, or do you prefer to have 

 torrents that will destroy your crops and 

 never bear a boat? If you prefer the 

 first, then mind your forests. We can 

 tell you, for we know. * * * 



"If the Mississippi is the 'Father of 

 Waters,' the forest is the father of the 

 Mississippi." 



Mr. Roosevelt was the man who dis- 

 covered that a national conservation 

 policy, which must include a national 

 forest policy, is all that stands between 

 the United States and the speedy des- 

 truction of whatever foundations of 

 wood the national utilities and indus- 

 tries rest upon. Through his direction, 

 the Forest Service has been familiariz- 

 ing itself with the entire public domain, 

 to determine its highest measure of 

 utility. This study is thorough and 

 scientific, and includes both general and 

 specific problems of the forest and its 

 product, and every possible relation 

 they sustain to the Nation and to the 

 individual. In short, it is concerned 

 with every possible relation existing 

 between civilization and the tree. The 

 Service is replanting denuded forest 

 areas, starting new ones, and conserv- 

 ing old ones. It studies the tree and its 

 relation to the drought and the flood, 

 to the irrigation of arid land and the en- 

 croachment of sand dunes, as well as 

 to the inundations of the freshet. It 

 tells the man who owns timber land how 

 to get the most out of it ; the farmer 

 who has none, what trees to plant, and 

 how. It shows the lumberman how to 

 avoid waste, and the millman how to 

 save. In short, it has made possible the 

 perpetuation of the utilities and indus- 

 tries and comforts dependent upon 



wood. It has taught the lumberman 

 there is no future to his business if 

 there is no future to the tree, and that 

 the lumberman must fall in line with 

 the Federal forest policy, or go out of 

 business for want of one. Mr. Roose- 

 velt said at the American Forest Con- 

 ference in Washington, January 2. 

 1905, "I ask, with all the intensity that 

 I am capable of, that the men of the 

 West will remember the sharp distinc- 

 tion I have just drawn between the man 

 who skins the land and the man who de- 

 velops the country. I am against the 

 land-skinner every time. Our policy is 

 consistent to give to every portion of 

 the public domain its highest possible 

 amount of use." 



The Forest Service controls over 

 seventy per cent of the forests publicly 

 owned by the United States, but less 

 than one per cent of the forests privately 

 owned. This gives a total of only 

 eighteen per cent of the total forest area 

 of the United States, covering about 

 550,000,000 acres, over which there is 

 any scientific oversight, promotion of 

 utility, or prevention of waste. The po- 

 litical principles of competitive anarchy 

 and patriotic nationalism are here 

 thrown into such dramatic contrast 

 that the mere statement of the prob- 

 lem should furnish a self-evident basis 

 for its solution. 



It is impossible to exaggerate the 

 seriousness of the menace to the busi- 

 ness interests of the country in the 

 possible failure of the lumber supply. 

 Every human interest, from agricul- 

 ture, transportation, building, manufac- 

 ture, commerce on the land, to the sail- 

 ing-vessel on the sea with her cargo of 

 wooden nutmegs, is directly and vitally 

 affected by the forest sources of the 

 wood-supply at living prices. 



We have not been accustomed to 

 think of the wood industry as such an 

 indispensable basis of our industries as 

 iron. We have looked upon agriculture 

 and iron as our two most important 

 economic corner-stones. But our cities 

 and our shipyards use more wood now 

 than even before the day of steamboats 

 or steel girders. 



