AMERICAN FOREST CONGRESS 5 



business that it will be profitable for his children 

 after him. That is the type of business that it is 

 worth while to develop. The time of indifference and 

 misunderstanding has gone by. 



Your coming is a very great step toward the solution 

 of the forest problem a problem which cannot be 

 settled until it is settled right. And it cannot be settled 

 right until the forces which bring that settlement about 

 come, not from the Government, not even from the 

 newspapers and from public sentiment in general, but 

 from the active, intelligent, and effective interest of 

 the men to whom the forest is important from the 

 business point of view, because they use it and its 

 product, and whose interest is therefore concrete 

 instead of general and diffuse. I do not in the least 

 underrate the power of an awakened public opinion; 

 but in the final test it will be the attitude of the 

 industries of the country which more than anything 

 else will determine whether or not our forests are to 

 be preserved. It is because of their recognition of 

 that prime material fact that so much has been accom- 

 plished, Mr. Wilson, by those interested under you 

 and in the other departments of the Government in 

 the preservation of the forests. We want the active 

 and zealous help of every man farsighted enough to 

 realize the importance from the standpoint of the 

 nation's welfare in the future of preserving the forests ; 

 but that help by itself will not avail. It will not even 

 be the main factor in bringing about the result toward 

 which we are striving ; the main factor must come from 

 the intelligence of the business interests concerned, so 

 that the manufacturer, the railway man, the miner, 

 the lumberman, the dealer in lumber, shall appreciate 

 that it is of direct interest to them to preserve through 

 use instead of waste the great resources upon which 



