AMERICAN FOREST CONGRESS 55 



What is needed to-day, immediately, is vastly more 

 strength to the arm of American forestry for the 

 vigorous prosecution of its well matured plans to 

 save what we now possess. The two greatest problems 

 before this country to-day, well worthy the expenditure 

 by the nation of millions and hundreds of millions of 

 dollars instead of thousands and hundreds of thou- 

 sands, are forestry and irrigation. They will return such 

 expenditure, principal and interest, many times over, 

 and the carrying out of such a policy will demonstrate 

 its wisdom within the present generation. It is a 

 question demanding our immediate consideration, and 

 is not, as many patriotic citizens seem to believe, a 

 remote problem which must be solved in the distant 

 future. I make no careless, ill-considered statement 

 when I assert that these two correlated subjects form 

 the most important question before the United States 

 to-day and through whose wise solution the country 

 has more to gain than from any other resource, within 

 her borders or over seas. For can anything be of 

 greater import than the creation of an empire within 

 our midst which will support a population as great 

 as that of the entire country to-day? 



The work of the Bureau of Forestry of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has come, within the past two 

 years, to be recognized as a practical, hard-headed 

 business proposition. When the present Forester, Mr. 

 Gifford Pinchot, took up this work he gave lumbermen 

 credit for shrewdness and ability; he did not claim to 

 know more than they about lumbering; but he did 

 contend that lumbering could be carried on profitably 

 without forest destruction. Later, when criticised for 

 his enthusiasm in the setting apart of forest reserves 

 and his supposed substitution of practical lumbering 

 for the aesthetic considerations, he made the notable 

 response : 



