Canadian Forestry Journal, April, 1918 



1637 



One of the New Ranger Cabins in Northern Ontario 



The Substitute's War on Wood 



"Cement, steel, iron, tin, brick, 

 tile, tar compositions, asphalt com- 

 positions, paper board, patent 

 plaster, gypsum, patent roofmgs, 

 floorings, patent framing — dozens of 

 interests, hundreds of companies, 

 and thousands of individuals are 

 all working to the same end — to 

 create a feeling against wood and, 

 correspondingly, to increase the use 

 of their goods. President to office 

 boy, every employee, every stock- 

 holder, every co-related commercial 

 and financial interest is working 

 without cessation for the injury of 

 the lumber industry in order to 

 build up its own." 



"Meanwhile, what have those who 

 gain their livelihood out of lumber 

 been doing?" asks the Southern Pine 

 Association of the United States. 



"Largely nothing." 



"They have sat still in sweet, 

 peaceful half-slumber, half-trance— 

 either wholly oblivious of the fight 

 on their property, or in a state of 

 self-hypnosis, convincing themselves 

 that the demand for lumber would 

 through some magic means continue 

 as it had in the days of prosperity, 

 unaffected, untouched; and therefore 



their incomes would likewise continue 

 without diminution. 



Who to Blame? 



"The actual result has been that 

 profits have shrunk, withered, and 

 in many cases been transformed 

 into losses. Jobs have grown fewer, 

 and salaries have at least not grown. 

 The lumber manufacturer, lumber 

 dealer, employee, and the stock- 

 holder can all blame themselves, 

 for all are responsible in varying 

 degrees. 



"It is only very recently that 

 the lumbermen have come together 

 on anything promising a national 

 movement to protect their property. 

 The cold blooded truth of the matter 

 is that the average lumberman, his 

 employees, and his business asso- 

 ciates have been satisfied to get 

 their living in part or whole out 

 of lumber, without a thought of 

 their duty toward the protection 

 of their means of livelihood against 

 unjust attacks. 



As Prosperity Vanished 



"It has required a change in the 

 prosperity of the lumber trade to 

 iDring ab^ut a change in the attitude 



