American Forest Congress 255 



The President is quoted as saying that the forest 

 question is the most vital internal problem in the 

 United States. It is truly so, and we are here assem- 

 bled to give increased vitality to the movement to 

 substitute saving for losing, preservation for assassi- 

 nation, creation for destruction, birth for death. We 

 are here to say to the servants of the people that as 

 compared with the reforming or the deforming of the 

 tariff and its schedules, the extinction or the encour- 

 agement of trade combinations, the regulation or the 

 demoralization of interstate transportation — ^all ques- 

 tions of importance, we admit — ^the problem of how we 

 shall conserve the timber production of the country is 

 the paramount issue. By its conservation we are pre- 

 served ; by its destruction we perish. The suggestions 

 as to the best methods of preserving what we have and 

 adding to our store are for you who are experts, and 

 not for me, a mere tyro, to give. 



My duty at the moment is to show briefly the needs 

 of the railroads as to timber resources. I might spend 

 time in showing the relation that railroad transporta- 

 tion bears to every industry, and that under the 

 methods of modem civilization not one could be suc- 

 cessfully maintained without it; but this would insult 

 your intelligence. The needs of railroads can, how- 

 ever, very profitably be called to your attention. There 

 are in the United States 206,885.99 miles of main 

 tracks, 79,376.03 miles of second tracks and sidings, 

 being a total rnileage of 286,262.02. The vast number 

 of trees needed to be felled to maintain this tremendous 

 mileage is so enormous as to stagger belief and exhaust 

 a reasonable amount of figures. The timber goes 

 mainly into ties, bridges, station houses, road crossings, 

 rolling stock, platforms, furniture, and also into many 

 minor uses. Wherever used there comes to it depre- 



