The star-progress. (Opelousas, La.) 1917-1921, 1921-02-23
CLIFFORD PINCHOT
SOUNDS WARNING
ON FOREST RUIN
Timber Lands Being Denud-
ed at Very Rapid
Rate
MILLIONS OF ACRES
NOW DESOLATE
Monopoly in Hands of Few
Who Oppose Reg
ulatiOn

Clifford PinchOt, one or the pest
informed men in the nation on for
estry and the conservation Of our tim
Der supply, sounds a warning in the
following timely open letter to the
American people:
Supplies of forest products, pulp
and lumber, are of as great Importance
to the users of newspTint as they are
to the nation at large. If one is short
the other will be short also. Therefore
| am taking the liberty of calling your
attention to certain facts about them.
I do so not to suggest that my letter
be given publicity, but purely for !
j your own information
/ We all know that the shortage OF
pulp and lumber, which made such |
! trouble during the war, threatens 10
recur in even more serious form, and
! that steps must be taken to meet u.
Here is the situation:
The United States consists OF TWEEN
ty-nine wood-importing states which
can not supply their own needs; six
teen wood exporting states, which for
the moment cut more than they use;
and three states about evenly bal
anced By far the larger part of our
agriculture, our industries, our news
: papers, our people, and our political
power are in the wood-impoTting
states. Your own state of Louisiana
is one of them.
J Five-sixths of our original timber is
| gone. Forest devastation has con
: Verted timberlands as large as the
: forests of all Europe (excluding Rus
, sia) into barren, idle wastes, and this
l desolation is spreading at the rate of
l three million acres year. We are cut
: ting what is left four times faster than
+ it is being reproduced. Moreover,
:. when our own forests are exhausted,
J. we can not look to other countries
d for wood to keep our industries alive.
!. We must grow our own or go without
S Within ten years at the most, the
e southern states, which now supply the
t, larger part of the lumber Louisiana
= uses, will be unable to do more than
v fill their own needs After that our
industries must depend upon wood
= from Washington, Oregon and Cali
:, fornia which contain a full half OF III
:, our remaining timber.
Four-fifths of the standing timber in
. America is in private hands. 1t i:
c being destroyed as rapidly as ever;
~ and concentration OF ownership keep,
, pace with forest destruction. Half o
;, the privately owned timber is held b,
t. $50 owners. In the state of Washing
% ton, for example, five holders owl
nearly half the privately owned stand
ing timber in the state. This contrc
I' in few hands the forest service tell
sc Us, will steadily increase as timba
IL depletion continues, approaching a n
- tural monopoly in character"
1t is evident that the most nece!
. =. sary sep, if we are to escape a till
- Der famine, is to stop forest devasti
tion on privately owned timberland
lg and keep them growing trees.
es The little group of big timberlan
~ owners has grown rich and powerfl
oL from forest devastation, and natural
ell does not want it stopped. They a,
III anxious, rather, to perpetuate tt
IN commercial advantage which their Il
ru- regulated ownership Of these hui
nS forest areas brings with it. Accor
W. ingly, they have undertaken to seen
the passage in congress of the Snt
Bill Oh. R. 1920, and are conductil
for that purpose an extensive pror
ganda.
I'M Briefly, the Smell bin lin additf
W. to various appropriations for gener
forest purposes, mostly desirabl
provides that if state with fores
oS still uncut (Which so far as our
TX terests go, will soon mean Washir
JIG ton, Oregon and California;. will "a
i4-9 laws to control forest devastation g
use 1sfactory to the secretary of agric
Wy ture, and=ff it will enforce them to
ocA satisfaction, then the United Sta
LIZ will bear part of the expense. u
naH Ftded the state itself will expsnd
al equal amount.
'n'S Regulated numbering costs m;
way than unregulated. The legislature
0'' any state would hesitate long bef
ana passing laws that would put men
business in that state at disadya
age as against their competitors
d an adjoining state where no such Ia
par had been passed.
last The lumbermen know. of con-
that they could block, in the legi
d" ture Of Washington, Oregon and c
7anS fornia, the passage Of any Iegfslat
hostile to the interests. They kn
therefore, that the passage Of
Q " Smell bill would leave them free to
~, - tinue the practice of forest deva
Continued on na1e ~