American Forest Congress 105 



Pinchot, the chief forester of the Government. A 

 man of culture, he has decided to make his Hfe work 

 one for which not only the present but future genera- 

 tions will "rise up to call him blessed." 



All within sound of my voice, therefore, are for- 

 esters; and so I feel some confidence in a kindly 

 reception of this effort. The subject has been a cause 

 for comment, not only in the lumber trade but among 

 all interested in forestry: "The Changed Attitude of 

 Lumbermen Toward Forestry." 



I think, however, it is hardly adequate to assume 

 that only the lumberman's position has changed; the 

 change has been as great, or greater, in the conditions 

 surrounding us, and in the attitude and policies of 

 specialists in forestry. 



No reasonable man would be disposed to denounce 

 the early settlers of the timbered portions of North 

 America for cutting away the forests. Cleared land 

 was necessary for the growing of food products which 

 were essential to the sustenance of life. A man with 

 a family, by a courageous enterprise or by the force of 

 circumstances projected into the wilderness, would not 

 hesitate to cut down and clear off the tree growth as 

 rapidly as his strength permitted. Self-preservation 

 is the first law of nature, and the pioneers in our forest 

 areas had to clear the land or starve. Moreover, in 

 the early period of settlement he was considered the 

 greatest benefactor to the state and to the community 

 in which he lived who slashed down the most forest 

 and cleared the land most rapidly and thoroughly. 



At first there was no thought of the future value of 

 timber; at the moment it was a cumberer of the 

 ground, like ledges of rock and the loose stones of the 

 glacial drift. It was thought to be a fortunate possi- 

 bility that a portion of the cumbersome forest growth. 



