American Forest Week Hints and Thou$hts

Radio address prepared by the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association

American Forest Week, for the observance of which thousands of clubs. societies and associations are now making their plans, has an appeil to every citizen, because the forests concern us all-far mori ihan most of us reaiize. The, appeal of sentiment exists for cvery man who has a drop of the olcl savage blood in his veins; the ippeal of the material -is there for every man who shares this mortil-life. The man of adventure and romance, the outdoor man; the man of business, of hard facts, of dollars and cents'+ll are bound to the forests.

Farms and forests are thc twin piers of the economic life of America. Our people were woodsmen before they were farmers, and for many generltiohs all our farmers lived in a forest environment. To this -diy the forest industries support more of our p,eople- than any other industry after agriculture. The forest scene has deeply m6ulded our nati6nal charlcter. It was a hostile and menacing, even if, an inspiring environment. No weakling could carv-e out a homest'ead frorir thJ great forests of what are now the middle western eastern and soutFern states. No man with a trace of sentiment could esc.pe the religious influence of the forests, those natural cathedrals bf the wondering soul.

So today the forests appEal to us throlgh Forest Week in prose and verse. in sense and ie-ntiment, in dollars and in dreams. They support aird inspire us. They give us substance and spirit' ii his proclamation President Coolidge calls upon us all to take counsel t6gether that the forests which loom so large in- Amcrican commcrcc -and character may be transmitted to our children as a part of their rkhtful heritage. It is a great and difficult task-one lhat requires tf,e co-operation of all. We must-make.our people forest-niinded; we must make them see the world again, as- mo-st of the native-born of the oldcr generation saw it+s a world deoendent on forests. Our chil&en are not reared among the trees, Lut thcy must be taught their depcndencc upon the forests by refcrence io the utilized-wood which they find on cvery hand. They must be reminded that back there somewhcrc in the snowy north, in the moist northwest or in the sunny south a tree was brought to earth and to the end of its serene life for enery piece of wood they sce around them. They must be inspircd with that reverence for the sacrifice that many of the rough lumbcriacks have. A man from Orecoc a lumbermah himself, told the other day, with tears in his Jyei, of how the choppers and sawycrs, rough men though they are, never fell a great tree without a twinge of regret and a touch of awe for the n-cessary deed they have done. It is a fine thing that the men who are the executioners at the sacrifice of the trees have such a noble feeling for them. Men who have passed their lives in the forest industries often have more sentimental regard foi trees, and a deeper sensuous love of their products than many of our city bred forest idealists.

Of all the riches with which the Lord God endowed this chosen oeoole none surpassed the riches of the forest. Without them thc ioniuest of the-continent would have been set back for decadee. Their supplied the cash capital, the housing, the bridges, the wagons, the trainJ and largely the roadbeds of the railways with which our people advanced to ihe conquest of the open west. In the forestcd ianiis, themselves, our people literally lived on the forests while thc roots of their economy were sinking into the earth.

Now, the unique chlracter of thiJ natural resource of the forests is that'it is ete?naly renewable. When the mineral deposits arc exhausted they are gone forever. Iron and coal, petroleu:n and -cop' Der-some dav the world will see the last of them. The forests have Leen replenisfiins themselves since the dawn timc of earth and will go on ih their immortality until time shall be no more. Wc havc Eere in the United Statei almost 500,000,000 acres which arc not fitted for agriculture and yet are in the forest regions. All this empire bears.-or has borne,-forests. It requires the merest fraction of 6ur colleciive intelligence and will, and an infinitesimally small part of our wealth to see to it that it shall go down through otrr gcner:r' tions producing bountifully of that indispensable material that is the body of the tree. It is inconceivablc that we will deliberat-ely elect to deny ourselves their enormous material advantagc,-carrying with it as it-does, such bcnign influences on climate, rainfall 'waterfow, navigation,'soil preservation and public hedth, and all thosc intancible values that iefresh the hcart and the spirit.

And so I appcal to all thc patriotic, public-spirited mcn and women' bovs and eifls. to take so;e part in thc observance of American Forest We-ek, April 18 to 24, inclusivc, to contribute something -to spreadine the'knowledge, arming the public will and building up the nublic oiinion that will decrcc- eternal lifc to our forests, making ttrem th6 inexhaustiblc sourccs of the materials on the working of rvhich 10,000,000 peoplc depend for their daily bread-on which, indeed, we all depend.

WE ARE

TO USE THE RECENTLY ADOPTED GRADE.MARK

OF THE 'WEST COAST LUMBERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OUR NUMBER IS 2I,

WE ARE PREPARED TO SUPPLYTHIS SERVICETOANY CUSTOMER REQUESTING IT, ON OUR GREEN.TIEII

VERTICAL GRAIN FIR FLOORING, CEILING, SIDING, FINISH, CASING, BASE, MOULDINGS, FRAME PARTS, CUT TO LENGTH OR LINEAL

FIR WILL NOT STAIN STUCCO