290 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



board of governors of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Asso- 

 ciation circulated among the members of that association in July, 

 1913: 



"Dear Sir: (Confidential.) 



"There is good reason to believe that an attack is to be made upon 

 the administration of the Forest Service, with particular reference 

 to the present methods of selling timber from the national forests. 



"For your confidential information, will say that certain members 

 of Congress, whose antagonism to the Forest Service is well known, 

 are said to be planning to make the charge, as soon as pending tariff 

 and currency legislation is out of the way, that the policy of the 

 Forest Service in disposing of government timber is dictated, or at 

 least influenced to a degree, by timber owners. "^^ 



Representative Johnson of Washington criticised the Forest Ser- 

 vice for selling stumpage too cheap. He admitted that the price of 

 the government was nominally higher than the market price, but said 

 it was really lower because the government gave purchasers five years 

 without interest to remove timber purchased. Johnson was in close 

 touch with lumber interests ; in fact, he apparently had lumber inter- 

 ests of his own, and this would easily explain his attitude.^* 



On the whole, there is exceedingly slender basis for the criticisms 

 of the policy of the Forest Service with regard to timber sales. In the 

 first place, the Service is required by law to sell at actual market 

 prices, and is not subject to criticism for following the provisions of 

 the law. Furthermore, even if the law did not require this, it would 

 be the only wise policy to sell at the regular market price. If the price 

 were raised above the market price, the government would be unable 

 to sell at all; a revenue of over a million dollars a year would be 

 lopped off; and a large amount of mature timber would be left to rot 

 in the forests. Much of the government timber is mature, some even 

 deteriorating. Even at the price set, the Forest Service has never sold 

 anything approximating the annual growth of the national forests ; 

 in fact, it has been stated that it never sold as much as one sixth the 

 estimated annual growth previous to 1913. If, on the other hand, the 



13 "I,umber Industry," Pt. IV, 61 et seq. 



14 Cong. Bee, Apr. 18, 1916, 6390, 6392 et Seq. 



