THE FOREST IN THE LIFE OF A 



NATION 



BY 



PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 



IT IS a pleasure to greet all of you here this 

 afternoon, but, of course, especially the members 

 of the American Forest Congress. You have made, 

 by your coming, a meeting which is without parallel 

 in the history of forestry. And, Mr. Secretary, I 

 must take this opportunity of saying to you what you 

 so amply deserve, that no man in this country has 

 done so much as you have done in the last eight years 

 to make it possible to take a business view from the 

 standpoint of all the country of just such ques- 

 tions as this. It is not many years since such 

 a meeting as this would have been regarded as 

 chimerical ; the thought of it would have been regarded 

 as absolutely chimerical. In the old pioneer days the 

 American had but one thought about a tree, and that 

 was to cut it down; and the mental attitude of the 

 nation toward the forests was largely conditioned upon 

 the fact that the life work of the earlier generations 

 of our people had been of necessity to hew down the 

 forests, for they had to make clearings on which to 

 live ; and it was not until half a century of our national 

 life had passed that any considerable body of American 

 citizens began to live under conditions where the tree 

 ceased to be something to be cleared off the earth. 



