The Fact Is There I^s Absolutely JVo

I don't like the idea of remaining quiet in the face of calumniation. It isn't even sensible.

I can remember through a long term of years when every loud mouthed politician who wanted to say something against somebody, and couldn't think of anyone else, took a crack at the "lumber trust". He knew he was qntirely safe in so doing, because the lumber folks never answcred.

And whenever some fool space writer got short of subjects for his diatribes, he grabbed the qld typewriter. and elaborated on the sins of the "lumber trustLl and the despoill ation of the nationr.

And he knew that any:rnswer he got would be negligible, because the lumber folks had adopted the habit of cursing the abject.liar among themselves, but doing nothing to riil the public mind of the basic thought of a hideous, publicrobbing combination.

They knew there was no lumber trust; they know that no lumber trust could ever be proven; and they let it go at that.

I didn't like the scheme, and proclaiuired against it always. "Silence gives consent" in the minds of the ordinary folks who hear and read such stuff, and hear and read no adequate refutation of it.

During the last few years the "lumber trust" bogey has disappeared. The bell mouthed political btzzard has had to go elsewhere for his dainty oral morsels, and the vinegar penciled space writer has been forced to seek other fields ofwild conjecture. Why? Whythis mighty change in the attitude of the public toward the lumber business? For it was only the change in public sentiment that silenced the slanderers, you can be assured.

Simply because the lumber industry woke up and began telling the public the truth about itself. It began advertising, began talking, began taking the public into its confidence. It's the bird that flies in darkness that people suspect, not the one that sings in the sunligtr,t in your front yard.

And when the lumber industry began to findits voice, and began making itself heard-began turning the searchlight of publicity upon itself in all of its ramifications-the public took a new slant at this basic industry, and the fertile mental ground that the slander spreaders used to cater to, disappeared. That's all there is to it.

It wiil liappen every time. There may be lumbermen who don't believe in the efficacy of individual advertising for business returns, but if th,ere is a well informed lumberman in this land who doesn't realize what the publicity of recent years has done to remove the stigma of unrighteousness from the lumber industry, that man needs mental renovating, for his cylinders are not all hitting.

The "lumber trust" is gone, and publicity killed what never existed.

And so I want to discuss this "tree murdering" talk that is running around the country today, and is generally met

By JA

with nothing but silence from the men who are being ruthlessly and truthlessly slandered.

I wonder how many readers of this journal digested recently published letter to the Editor of the Dallas (Texas) News on this subject. If you didn't read it, please do at once. If you are in anyway interested in timber you need that ammunition-and it is unanswerable mun'ition.

In California there is a specific situation that reflectr in an entirely unjust manner upon the lumbermen. Thtf is the Redwood situation. Ttle Redwoods have much sentiment connected with them. They are the largest of all trees. They are the oldest living things. Many of them stood on those same hillsides, when The Man of Galilee was preaching His Gospel in the Old World. They are beautiful and wonderful.'.

It is proper that they should NOTbe completely down. The Redwood manufacturers agree in that thoug$it. Nevertheless the cutting of those Redwoods is just as practical and necessary a thing as was the cutting of the forests of Texas, concerning which I wrote the Dallas News. Apply the same thoughts to the Redwoods and see if that isrt't true?

Suppose California decides that the Redwoods must NOT be cut, and saved the Redwood forests by condemnation and the purchase of those forests and those lands on which they stand.

What would it mean? Today every Redwood tree is taxed, and with those.taxes the costs of County and State Governments are met. Destroy the commercial value of the trees-and commercial value can only come through their manufacture into materials that are purchased for human use-and instantly you remove their tax value. The school, supported by those taxes, ceases to function at once, because a valueless thing cannot pay taxes or be taxed, and beauty and sentiment isNOT taxable.

Condemn the Redwood forests and stop their manufacture, and in those districts where they grow, what happens? Total paralysis of human activity ! That's all ! The camps shut down and their payroll ceEses. The mills shut down5 and their payroll terminates. Those men must seek elsewhere for employment in order that they and their familitx may live. So they give up their homes, and move away, seeking sustenance. Their children go with them, and the schools are empty. The money those men spend in the stores, the markets, the theatres, is at an end. The stores, the markets, the theatres, must close.The taxes which are now levied upon the milling concerns, and which are the chief means of support of the counties where timber is being cut, changes from great annual sums of ready cash to-what? Zerol

The trees would stand. The Redwood highway would remain beautiful. The tourist5 could continually proclaim at their wonders.But what.would become of those dis-

Ionne

tricts, in which the chief asset had been utterly destroyed from a commercial, industrial and tax-paying viewpoint.

Think it over, you men who proclaim at the "murderers of trees".

They proudly call California "The Golden State". And yet the forests of California have already produced TWICE AS MUCH WEALTH AS HAVE THE GOLD MINES OF. CALIFORNIAAND WILL CONTINUE TO PRO. DUCE GREAT WEALTH TO THE "GOLDEN STATE'' FOR TWO HUNDRED YEARS TO COME.

Have the Redwood manufacturers of Californria anything to be ashamed of, in their operations? They are replanti'',g many, many young Redwood trees for every one they cut down. They are protecting and caring for those potential forests. They are going to greater expense in this line than any other American manufacturers. And they are doing so because of the sentime,ntal attachment to the great Redwoods.

It is true that the Redwoods stood when Jesus preached on the Hills of Galilee.AndHe preached the gospel of SERVICE at all times. "Even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and gave His life a ransom for many."

What Service have the Redwoods rendered the world and mankind duringthe thousands of years they have stood? What Service will they or can they render, if they stand for thousands of years to come?

But they give their lives to the Service of mankind, when they are used commercidly. Their commercial value makes them valuable before being cut, and heavy taxes are paid upon the standing timber. The camps and mills that manufacture them serve mankind by giving employment to many thousands of men, and furnish a livelihood for tens of thousands of women and children who are dependent upon these men for their support. The wages of these men, and the taxes of the milling concerns furnish the chief means of support for everything in those districts from the school house to the Government.

Forbid their cutting, and stop this industry, and what have you?

And when the lumber is manufactured, it goes out to all the world, supplying the needs of mankind, and performing a continual service. Redwood is a rot-resisting, longlived wood. There are few others. There are no other woods of this character that have any great amount of timber left. Redwood is the only one. Cypress is almost gone. Redwood has a hundred years of cutting in virgin timber.

And the lumber into which the trees are cut, will last hundreds of years, giving service to th€ world-a service that no standing tree can give.

Then, friend of mine, why stand back when men lift their yoices, and issue the printed word, attacking the men who cut down trees, be they Redwood, or any other wood?

Had they prohibited the cutting of forests in the South in the beginning, they would have destroyed a great part of the South, and deriied to mankind a great servant.

If they prohibit the cutting of timber in the West they destroy a great part of the West.

The Redwood manufacturers of California are in sym. pathy with setting aside certain of the Redwood tracts for parks, and for future attractiveness.

But where shall it end?

And in the face of the facts I have just set forth, where is the culpability on the part of the manufacturers of Redwood lumber, who are turning trees-which as such are worth nothing, produce nothing, are not taxable-into valuable things that will last practically always? As a matter of fact, the Redwood manufacturers are engaged in a business that they have every right to be proud of, and to tell the world about. I I It

Just take a resume of what Redwood trees medn, on one side if their cutting were forbidden, and on the other when commercially permitted, as at present:

First, commercially:

The standing trees are taxed.

The land under them is taxed.

The mills that cut them are taxed.

The lumber is taxed.

Tens of thousands of people make a living in the mills and camps, and form most of the civilization of those districts.

The lumber furnishes freight for the railroads and the ships, thus furnishing employment for many more men in transporting it to market.

Thousands upon thousan.ds of men are employed in remanufacturing the Redwood lumber into more finished products. These men have families who are thus supported.

Thousands upon thousands of carpenters are furnished employment in building homes, and other buildings, from Redwood.

In Redwood tanks and silos the farmer protects his possessions.

Under Redwood roofs, within Redwood buildings, men and their families, and their possessions are protected and housed.

And these buildings are taxed forever, and keep on furnishing the tax money that keeps the nation and the Goverrrment going.

You can easily add many more items to this list, but this is a good start.

Then on the other hand, take a Redwood district where the cutting of trees is prohibited, and y9u have:

No taxes on the trees, because they have no value.

(Continued on Page 35)