The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



17 



being rapidly depleted and will be largely cut out in a couple 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- ^^^^^ States 

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

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

 ren of useful products, here and there a trace of a former saw- ^^f^ Barren 

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

 its markets is gone, 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 

 have 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 pine, and can by 

 distillation obtain it from Douglas fir and other species, but pos- f"^^^\ Stores 

 sibly with less yield and greater cost. The Southeast with its danqered 

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

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

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

 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. 



