THE VALUE OF FORESTRY TO COM- 

 MERCIAL INTERESTS 



BY 

 GEORGE H. MAXWELL 



Executive Chairman, The National Irrigation Association 



C OME ten days ago a telegram reached me from the 

 Governor of California asking if I could attend 

 this Congress as a delegate from California. I replied 

 that I could, and in due time received his appointment. 

 I mention that merely in order that I may impress upon 

 your minds that in the few words I have to say to you 

 at this gathering, I speak as a delegate from and a 

 citizen of California and a resident of that State, from 

 the time of my birth until the last few years, which 

 warrants me in speaking of forestry from the stand- 

 point of a Western man. 



I think it is only proper that I should further say to 

 you that I also represent on this occasion the National 

 Irrigation Association, an organization of between two 

 and three thousand of the largest commercial and 

 manufacturing firms in the United States, located 

 chiefly in the Eastern States, and that I speak also 

 from the standpoint of the Eastern commercial and 

 manufacturing interests. 



I think the mistake which those of us who are from 

 the west make to-day, and always have made, is in 

 looking upon this question of forestry in any sense as 

 a sectional question. It is necessarily as much a 

 national question as the maintenance of an army or 

 the construction of a navy. 



I wish I had the power by some telepathic process 



