374 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



In the question of the conservation of any natural resource, there 

 is usually a problem of balancing benefits against costs ; but some 

 advocates have been insistent on the conservation of all things, and 

 almost regardless of cost. The Americans have been a wasteful and 

 extravagant people in their use of all natural resources ; but there 

 are circumstances under which this wastefulness was not only in- 

 evitable, but even wise. The people of America could not possibly 

 have treated their forests with the same care that Europeans have 

 shown, for there were too many forests and too few people. 



Just as it would be easy to judge too severely of the moral obli- 

 quity involved in the attitude of the western timbermen and con- 

 gressmen, so it would be possible to exaggerate the virtue involved 

 in the efforts of the eastern men to conserve the public timber. In the 

 early history of the country, the eastern men wanted to keep the 

 public lands as a source of revenue, and in later times some of them 

 desired to preserve the public timber in order that the whole country, 

 but especially the East, might have a future supply of timber. The 

 East was of course the section which would first feel the pinch of 

 scarcity. As Representative Martin of Colorado once said : "I notice 

 that the less public domain and the less natural resources a member 

 has in his state, the more enthusiastic he is about conservation."^ 

 Perhaps there was in the attitude of some of the eastern men an ele- 

 ment of selfishness not altogether unlike that which characterized the 

 West. This must not be construed as denying or belittling the truly 

 unselfish and heroic work of many of the leaders in the conservation 

 movement. 



It may be worth while to point out that the wasteful exploitation 

 of the forests, unfortunate though it seems in many ways, provided 

 consumers with very cheap lumber for the time being. In the seventies 

 and eighties, the white pine of the Lake states was being cut with 

 almost no regard for the future; but, while this meant scarcity and 

 high prices in the future, it meant cheap lumber of the finest grade 

 for some of the early settlers who were building homes on the prairies 

 of the Middle West, many of whom surely had suflBcient difiiculty 

 securing the comforts of life. 



3 Cong. Bee, Apr. 7, 1910, 4376. 



