The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 17 



Ldkc Sl<ttcs 

 Much of 



hfting rapidly depleted and will be largely cut out iu a c<niple of 

 decades. 



We have seen the Lake States leading the country in lum- 

 ber production twenty-five years ago, and now yielding only 

 about 10 per cent of the nation's requirements. What is replac- 

 ing these industries? In some places agriculture, but over many 

 millions of acres nothing — a vast wilderness, fire swept and bar- I-orest Area 

 rcii of useful products, here and there a trace of a former saw- ^-^/' Barren 



mill town, old farms deserted because the local industry with "" ripopu- 



' 111 Ifitcd 



its markets is goile, roads almost impassable because the taxable 



resources that would keep them up has been destroyed, a virtual 



depopulation of hundreds of square miles. 



Today the great paper mills of the Lake States with millions 

 invested in equipment and water power are embarrassed to se- 

 cure supplies of wood, and they face the necessity to import 

 wood from a great distance or to abandon their plants. Inquiries 

 have already been made whether material could be secured from 

 the National Forests of the Rocky Mountains to supply paper 

 mills in Wisconsin ; and it has always been hard for me to recon- 

 cile myself to the importation of wood pulp from Scandinavia to 

 points 1,000 miles in our interior. 



For many years the United States has occupied a command- 

 ing position in the production of naval stores. I believe that we 

 liave been producing about 80 per cent of the world's supply. 

 This country has the best source of supply of the world in re- 

 spect to species of trees, climate and accessibility — conditions 

 unexcelled anywhere. Yet we are rapidly dissipating this re- 

 source, and if we keep on, not only the South, but the country, 

 will lose its place as an important producer of naval stores. We 

 know that we can get turpentine from Western ])ine, and can by 

 distillation obtain it from Douglas fir and other species, but pos- 

 sibly with less yield and greater cost. Tlie Southeast with its 

 long leaf and slash pine is the logical place for turpentine pro- 

 duction. It is important both to the locality and to the nation to 

 have this thirty-five million dollar industry continued. Is ii 

 necessary for the South to lose its place in turpentine production 

 or in lumber production? If they were to be replaced by agri- 

 culture, production of cotton, corn and other farm products, and 

 the land now producing trees were turned into productive fields. 

 I should say that there would be no less, but perhaps a gain. 



Xaral Stores 

 Industry En- 

 (l(in(/cred 



