The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1919-04-29
COUNTRY is WARNED
OF TIMBER SHORTAGE
BY United Press.


the country of a coming timber
shortage and the acute paper sit
uation Percival S. Ridsdale, secre-
tary of the American Forestry Asso-
citation, today gave some startling
facts as to conditions confronting
the United States following the war.
Rigsdale, who has just returned
from France, where the offer to aid
in reforesting that country was ac-
cepted, said:
War reached its hand to the
fartherest corners of the earth and
the reckoning of settlement is
now puzzling the brains of the
world. In round numbers the cost
Of the war to the world is placed at
1877 billions of dollars. The secre-
tary Of war has said that every
child born for the next one hundred
years will have a part of the bill to
pay What are we doing to tighten
that burden?
''In no field did the hand of war
reach farther or do greater damage
than in forestry. Pictures of the
( devastation in France are familiar to
all of us. A fight went on in other
quarters of the globe to satisfy the
call of war that was just as over
whelming as that of the battle line.
The sound was the crashing to
earth of timber trees and the whir
of the saw.
New England is no longer self
supporting in timber resources.
"A timber area in Minnesota,
equal to that of Massachusetts, was
wiped out by fire last fell, with but
passing notice.
Had the war come fifteen years
later we would have been hard put
to meet the call for lumber.
Southern Pine manufacturers
state the bulk of the original sup
plies of yellow pine in the south
will be exhausted in ten years and
1000 lumber plants will go out of
existence.
at is estimated that for every
forty feet board measure of mer-
chantable lumber seventy billion
feet are wasted in the field or at
hte mill
eve have all seen our newspapers
jump in price against the will of the
publisher. Ask the first newspaper
man you meet about the cost of
white paper and he will tell you
hte question is his nightly night
mare. Paper conservation should
be taken up in the schools, as it
has by thousands of business con-
Germs, The situation is acute.
'The American Forestry Associa-
ton, through its campaign for plant
ing memorial trees, IL educating the
American people to the values of
forestry The Association aims to
register every tree planted and a
marker has been designed for these
trees Plans are also going forward
for tree planting on a wholesale
SCALE so that our forests may be
replennshed before it is too late.
Just how acute the situation is
may be seen in the warning by Col
Henry S. Graves a vice PRESIDENT
of the American Forestry Associa-
tion and forester of the United
States He puts it this way:
"The experience of war called sharp
attention to the condition of our re-
naming timber supplies. The bulk
of the material for general construc-
tion was obtained from a few large
ecnters of original forest, often in
volving long rail hauls and high |
cost. Extreme difficulties were en-
countered in obtaining promptly and |
HNCdudttig d supply VI SDtCldllZ6u
products like some of the high grade |
hardwoods. If the emergency had |
come Is years from no wwe would
have had very great embarrassment
in obtaining even the lumber need
ed for general construction, except
at a great sacrifice in time, cost,
and crowding of the railroads.
"The planting of Memorial Trees
as suggested by the American For
estry Association is of the great st
value in directing at
ention to forestry. Large fore st
reas should be planted, not only
his year but every year We fought
o establish the frontiers of freedom,
pit what are we going to do about
those frontiers The for !
SITS of Frannnee kept the Hun from 8
eaching Paris. Will our forests 8
eep the scourage of flood and des-
rt waste from overwhelming our 8
nd? We must answer now the call 8
the children nwho viii be born &