A Decennial Recokd 131 



greatest opportunity to expand our world trade in manufactures which 

 we have ever had. It is unthinkable, I say, that, in the face of these 

 vast requirements and opportunities, the people of tlie United States 

 should be content to watch one of their essential and readily renewable 

 raw materials become steadily scarcer and less available; that they 

 slioidd acce])t famine prices on timber as a normal condition, with en- 

 forced contractions in its use, embargoes, and governmental restric- 

 tions. And such a course is as unnecessary as it would be disastrous. 



We have an ample area of forest-growing land, over and above 

 any probable demands for farm crops, most of it indeed unfit for culti- 

 vation — an area ample to meet all of our timber requirements if its 

 timber-growing capacity is but put to use. From every hand, during 

 the last few months, we have been told to increase production as the 

 cure of our economic ills. I submit that increased production from 

 land is as necessary as increased production by human labor. The 

 idleness of millions of acres of forest-growing land may be even more 

 disastrous in its ultimate effects than the idleness of hundreds of thou- 

 sands of skilled mechanics. And we have in America today an area 

 of idle forest land equal to the combined forest of Continental Europe 

 aside from Russia. 



The answer to the forestry problem of the United States is not to 

 use less wood but to grow more — to put our idle acres of burned and 

 logged-off timber land at work growing trees. This is not inherently 

 a difficult thing to accomplish. It is not the Utopian dream of a tech- 

 nical enthusiast. Three-fourth of it lies in preventing forest fires. 

 But it does require an aggressive national policy of reforestation. It 

 requires concerted action by the national and state governments to do 

 the things which must be done by ])ul)lic agencies. It requires the 

 active ])artici])t!ti()n of the private forest owner. It requires a clear 

 definition ol' ])ublic and private responsibihties as to timber-growing 

 land, with an equitable showing of the cost. There is no phase of our 

 M'hole problem of an assured and perpetual supply of timber that can- 

 not l)e met by sinqile and obvious measures once the constructive effort 

 and ca])acity for organized coo])eration of the American people are 

 put beliind tliem. 



It is no exaggeration to say that abundant and well distril)uted 

 forests have been a vital factor in the prosperity of the Ignited States. 

 It rests with us to say whether they will continue to be, or wliether we 



