120 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



product on the market to the extent of breaking down 

 values and causing unprofitable prices. It is true a 

 commercial motive enters here to prevent the slaugh- 

 tering of the forests, but the result is the same. In 

 one sense there are no purely unselfish motives 

 touching economical questions. Even the disciples of 

 forestry wish to preserve, propagate, and perpetuate 

 the forests because the results would be of economic 

 benefit to mankind. The underlying motive is the 

 benefit that largely can be expressed in dollars and 

 cents. So it is an encouraging sign to see the lumber- 

 men awakening to the fact that it is to their individual 

 interests and to the interests of their heirs to make the 

 most of their timber by the prolongation of cutting and 

 by the preservation and nurture of the young growth. 

 In this awakening they are in direct accord with the 

 most advanced forester. Moreover, it can be said that 

 the present spirit of the lumbermen in respect to for- 

 estry is but a foretaste of what it will be as the years 

 pass. Forestry is a cause that shall grow in earnestness 

 and power until it shall have become the undisputed 

 dictum as applied to the management of the woodlands. 

 In saying this I believe that I voice the faith that is 

 growing in the minds of intelligent lumbermen. 



Let it not be supposed that the lumberman is any 

 less public-spirited, any less a sentimentalist, than he 

 who is engaged in any other line of business. He sees 

 as much beauty in a noble oak or elm as does any one. 

 He would preserve nature's landmarks if he did not 

 have to pay all the cost himself. He sees the value of 

 a forest cover on the mountain slopes and at the head 

 of the waters of the streams. He sees all these things 

 but he does not wish to pay, himself, the entire cost or 

 more than his fair share of the cost. His attitude 

 toward forestry has changed with the conditions, and, 

 while there may be exceptions, the average operating 



