American Forest Congress 257 



depend. It may be better that I should state that they 

 are interdependent, for without these industries rail- 

 roads could not thrive, and without the railroads the 

 industries could not survive, and to maintain both 

 industries and railroads the timber and lumber product 

 of the forests is the prime factor and absolute neces- 

 sity. 



This much for the needs. What of the supply for 

 the needs, the satisfaction of these wants? It is not 

 only the preservation by judicious forestry and intel- 

 ligent lumbering of the store we have, but the planting 

 and husbanding, wherever trees can be induced to 

 grow, of new forests. To this end there must be the 

 arousing of public sentiment, so that in every state 

 and in the nation there shall be taught the lesson that 

 will lead to legislation encouraging timber growth. 

 The labor must not only be one of love, but one of 

 duty. We should rejoice in the fact that in this move- 

 ment, fraught with so much of good to the republic, 

 sentimentalism joins hands with commercialism. 



"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods," but 

 there is profit as well. It is difficult, I know, to deter- 

 mine to sow where we cannot reap. The man who 

 plants trees works not for himself but for posterity; 

 but we should remember that with almost criminal 

 recklessness and censurable disregard of the rights of 

 the future we have destroyed that which a decent 

 regard for the race should have prompted us to pre- 

 serve for those who shall come after us, and certainly 

 from that standpoint we owe much to posterity. 



The legislation of Congress from 1817, when the 

 first timber preservative act was passed to save live oak 

 and red cedar for naval purposes, to this time has not 

 been marked by great wisdom. It is to be hoped that 

 there may speedily come a repeal of the Timber and 



