Iti REPORT OF THE FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



country today, and is likely to become a matter of legislation which will vitally 

 affect public interests. The whole report is a timely contribution to public 

 knowledge on the subject. 



Most of the criticism against the Forest Service concerns conditions beyond 

 its control, which result from lack of authority or inadequate funds. The first 

 section on "Needed Legislation in National Forestry" outlines the needed changes 

 and increases in Congressional legislation and appropriations which will enable 

 the Forest Service to administer the National Forests with full efficiency. It is 

 stated that "the legislation which is needed in national forestry is primarily to 

 extend the principles already recognized by Congress and to enable the executive 

 authority better to put these principles into practice." 



Another attempt, to wrest the national forests from public control tor 

 private exploitation, is imminent, this time under the guise of arguments and 

 legislation for State control. Section II of the Federal Forest Policy report, on 

 "National versus State Control of National Forests," should dampen the powder 

 of the States' rights advocates before they reach the firing line. The facts and 

 evidence, stated by a man like Jos. N. Teal, who is, himself, a resident of a 

 public lands State, are conclusive and irrefutable. One of the opening sentences 

 summarizes the incentive at the bottom of the whole States' rights movement 

 for control, of the national forests as follows : "In reality knowledge of the 

 facts and consideration of the arguments used to substitute State for national 

 control show that the underlying motive of the propaganda for State control has 

 for its object the elimination of public forests, State or national. This fact 

 should be known, and the issue accepted and fought out in the open instead 

 from ambuscade." 



Section III, on "Economics of Timber Supply in Relation to Production and 

 Consumption," was written by Mr. E. T. Allen at the request of the sub-com- 

 mittee. It deals with the neglected topic of forest economics in a way which 

 brings out many new and striking facts, particularly in relation to the sale of 

 timber from national forests. As an indication of the character and soundness 

 of this chapter the following is quoted : "It follows that the maximum cut from 

 the national forests should be assured, not during the existing period of stored 

 and excessive virgin supply, or during the permanent future which will begin 

 when adequate forest crops have had time to mature, hut during the closing years 

 of an intervening transition period." 



Committee 3. 



STATE FOREST POLICY 



Chairman, W. T. Cox State Forester, St. Paul Minn 



F. A. Elliott State Forester, Salem, Ore. 



?t' ^; ^^,"'^ Superintendent, State Forests, Albany, N Y 



H. H. Chapman Professor, Yale Forest School, New Haven' 



Conn. ' 



J. E. Rhodes Secretary-Manager, National Lumber Man- 

 ufacturers' Association, Chicago, III. 



