CHAPTER III 



Pole to Pole and Pillar to Post 



How wood helps us to maintain communication; 

 telegraph and telephone poles; piles for piers and 

 docks; wood as essential to the mining of coal and 

 other products; wood fence-posts. 



Today when the President of the United States 

 makes a speech in Washington he is heard by audi- 

 ences in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. 

 Thousands of miles of wire carry his words from 

 Atlantic to Pacific, thousands of wood poles carry 

 the wires. The wireless telephone too is finding its 

 place in the broadcasting of public utterances; but 

 there will have to be many improvements in radio 

 operation before the poles come down. 



And here we are once more dependent upon our 

 forests. As each telegraph or telephone pole 

 usually represents a single tree, no less than five^ 

 million trees have to be cut each year to maintain 

 the carrying of man's hasty messages. We have 

 been particularly fortunate in America in possessing 

 great forest resources of cedar, a wood slow to 

 decay and yet reasonably strong. We have had 



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