The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1921-02-24
DEF0REsTATION DEPLORED
non. Clifford Pinch0t Points Out the
Danger to the Nation in Denuding
the Lands of Timber

Mr.. Clifford Pinchot, Americas fore
most conservationist of natural re-
sources, has written the following let
ter to The Republican and it is given
publicity because of the many facts
therein stated that are of interest to
the general public:
Mr.. Benz. H. Sincell, Editor,
The Republican,
Oakland, Maryland.
Dear Mr.. Sincell:-Supplies of for
est products-pulp and lumber-sre
of as great importance to the users of
newsprint as they are to the Nation
at large. If one is short the other
will be short also. Therefore l am
taking the liberty of calling your
attention to certain facts about them
l do so not to suggest that my letter
be given publicity, but purely for your
own information.
We all know that the shortage of
pulp and lumber, which made such
trouble during the war, threaten to re-
cur in even more serious form, and
that steps must be taken to relieve it.
Here is the situation:
The United States consists Of %
wood-importing states, which cannot
supply their own needs; Is wood-ex-
porting States, which for the moment
cut more than they use; and 8 States
about evenly balanced. BY far the
larger part of our agriculture, our in
dustries, our newspapers, our people,
and our political power are in the
wood-importing States. Your own
State Of Maryland is one of them.
Five-sixths of our original timber is
gone. Forest devastation has convert
ed timberlands as large as the forests
of all Europe Excluding RUSSIA into
barren, idle waste, and this desolation
is spreading at the rate Of three mil
lion acres a year. We are cutti@ what
is left four times faster than it is
being produced. Moreover, when our
own forests are exhausted, we cannot
look to other countries for wood to
keep our industries alive. We must
grow our own or go without.
within ten years at the most, the
Southern States, which now supply the
larger part of the lumber Maryland
uses, will be unable to do more than
fill their own needs. After that our
industries must depend upon wood
from Washington, Oregon, and Cali
fornia, which contain a full half of all
our remaining timber.
Four-ffths Of the standing timber in
America is in private hands. 1t is be-
ing destroyed as rapidly as ever; and
concentration of ownership keeps pace
with forest destruction. Half of the
privately owned timber is held by $50
owners. In the State Of Washington,
for example, five holders own nearly
half the privately owned standing tim
Der in the State. This control in a few
hands, the Forest Service tells us,
twill steadily increase as timber de-
pletion continues, approaching a nat
ural monopoly in character"
1t is evident that the most necessary
step, if we are to escape a timber
famine, is to stop forest devastation
on privately owned timberlands, and
keep them growing trees.
The little group of big timberland
owners has grown rich and powerful
from forest devastation, and naturally
does not want it stopped. They are
anxious, rather, to perpetuate the
commercial advantages which their
unregulated ownership of these huge
forest areas brings with it. Accord
ingly, they have undertaken to secure
the passage in Congress of the Smell
Bill Oh. R. 1920, and are conduct
ing for that purpose an extensive
propaganda.
Briefly, the Smell Bill Tin addition to
various appropriations for general
forest purposes, mostly desirable pro-
vides that IF a State with forests still
uncut (Which so far as our interests
go, will soon mean Washington, Ore
gon and California;, will pass laws to
control forests devastation satisfac-
tory to the Secretary Of Agriculture,
and IF it will enforce them to his sat
isfaction, then the United States will
bear part of the expense, provided
the State itself will spend an equal
amount.
Regulated numbering costs more
than unregulated. The legislature of
any State would hesitate long before
passing laws that would put men in
business in that State at disadvan-
tage as against their competitors in
an adjoining State where no such laws
had been passed.
The lumbermen know, of course
that they could block, in the legisla-
lures of Washington, Oregon and Cal
ifornia, the passage of any IegisIa-
tim hostile 70 tba;,. ;x1o,ez4 III