FOREST PRESERVATION AND NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 



[The American Forest Congress, held in Washington, D. C, January 2-6, 

 1905, was of a character altogether unique. It brought together from every 

 part of the country eminent representatives of all the great industries directly 

 dependent on our forests, to discuss the importance of forest preservation. 

 Practical methods of safeguarding the broad business interests of the nation, 

 now threatened by wholesale forest destruction, were considered by lumbermen, 

 railroad men, engineers, foresters, and representatives of the mining, grazing, 

 cooperage, and other interests, of the several States, and of the National Govern- 

 ment. Passages from a number of the addresses, somewhat condensed in places, 

 are given below. 



The opening address, at the public meeting of the congress held at the 

 National Theater on the afternoon of January 5, was delivered by President 

 Roosevelt, and was in part as follows:] 



THE FOUEST IN THE LIFE OF THE NATION. 



THEODORE B00SEVELT, 



President of the United States. 



It is a pleasure to greet all of you here this afternoon, but espe- 

 cially the members of the American Forest Congress. You have 

 made by your coming a meeting which is without parallel in the 

 history of forestry. In the old pioneer days the American had but 

 one thought about trees, and that was to cut them down; and it was 

 not until half a century of our national life had passed that any 

 considerable body of American citizens began to live under condi- 

 tions where the tree ceased to be something to be cleared off the face 

 of the earth. For the first time the great business and forest inter- 

 ests of the nation have joined together, through delegates altogether 

 worthy of the organizations they represent, to consider their indi- 

 vidual and their common interests in the forests. 



The producers, the manufacturers, and the great common carriers 

 of the nation have long failed to realize their true and vital relation 

 to the great forests of the United States, and the forests and indus- 

 tries both suffered through that failure. The suffering of the indus- 

 tries in such case comes after the destruction of the forests, but it is 

 just as inevitable as that destruction. If the forest is destroyed it 

 is only a question of a relatively short time before the business inter- 

 ests suffer in consequence. 



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