Evening star., 1924-11-19
PRESIDENT WARNS
NATION MUST ACT
TOSAVE FORESTS
Declares Exhaustion of Tim
ber Looms. Before National
Society Here.
POINTS TO DIFFERENCE
OF CUT AND GROWTH
25.OOO, 100000 Cubic Feet Used
Yearly While New Footage
Is 6,0C0,OOO,oo0.

ber saving. President Coolidge. ad-
dressing the National Conference or
utilization of Forest Products, today
sounded the warning that the Ma
lion faces timber exhaustion. Ihe
situation must be met, he said, by
diminishing waste and increasing the
supply.
The Nations resources are a trust
Mr. Coolidge declared, subject to use
by the present generation. administer
I'd free of monopolies and from those
swho will. unwisely permit them TO
Se dissipated," but there must be re-
storation as well as use.
Approximately .45.00o,0oo. 600 GU
bic feet of timber is left i'll the
United States, he pointed out and
egainst this supply there is an an
nual drain of 25.000, 100000 cubic feet,
while the annual tiEber growth Is
only 5000 900, 900 cubic feet. In the
lace of this situation, he declared
the nation must turn to the problem
of growing wood from the soil like
any other crop.
Nation Must Take Action
ITO bridge this fatal gap between
cut and growth" however, Mr.. Cool
idge said sufficient action had not
Vet been taken aud the country must
consequently adjust itself immediate
" to reduced per capita con-
sumption.
The President saw hopeful signs
IN Federal legislation as enacted III
the Clarke -McNary bill passed at the
last session of Congress, making pro-
vision for fire protection and restora-
tion, and in the Weeks Law authoriZ-
ing Government purchase OF numer-
Gus forest tracts. These must bf
supported. he declared, by policy
which Will. 'in the hands or private
individuals .and of public officers
tend to the further advancement OF
this already we'll defined and securely
adopted principle"
$50 vast an enterprise as the Tor
est-using industries must not be al
lowed to decline for lack Of raw ma
trial" the President continued. We
have abundant soil To produce II:
We have the energy and the intelIt-
gence to learn to use our forests
without waste. This conference
ought to lay the foundation of a
far-reaching and effective effort for for
est thought.
The text of the Presidents speech
follows in full:
This conference has beef called for
the purpose of further attempting to
1ional timber supply. one of the chief
items in that problem is the present
ppalling waste. Some of this waste
may he unavoidable. but to large
extent it is unnecessary. The time is
ct hand when our country is actually
confronted with timber shortage.
That can be remedied in only two
ways: by diminishing the present
waste and increaJ ng the present
supply.
TT is significant that this confer
ence was called by the late Secre-
rary of Agriculture, Henry &. Wal
lace. 1t was the outcome Of broad
forest policy which he was engaged
in developing. and to which he con-
tributed so much ability and energy.
1t was, he hoped 20 LEAD to such
care in the nanufa cture and use Of
our forest products that We could
greatly lessen the severity of the
prolonged timber shortage. of which
We are entering the first stage. If this
conference can forward his purpose,
there could be no more worthy trib-
ute to his devotion to forest conser-
walton. Others may have equalled
linn, but American forests have had
no better friend than Secretary Wal
lace.
Busy men and women who drop
their personal affairs and lend their
counsel to a public conference come
with the expectation that they can
accomplish some tangible results. The
Government is going to ask you to
consider definite plans for reducing
timber waste. 1t is going to suggest
that out of this conference shall
emerge a program of specific action
for timbersaving rather than a mere
expression of ideas. Containing, as 1t
does, leaders from every branch of
forest industry and from many in
terests closely allied with forest in
dustry. this conference has, 1 know,
the ability and the will to create such
a program. 1t is not my purpose to
discuss those specific measures, but
to give as a background for your
consideration some of the facts that
force us to adopt a drastic program
Of forest thrift.
Free Era at An End.
"The era of free, wild timber is
reaching it's end, as the era of free,
wild food ended SO Ions ago. We
can no longer depend on moving from
one primeval forest to another. for
already the sound of the ak has
penetrated the last Of them. We like
TO think that 1t took three centuries
to harvest these immense forests.
1t is comfortable to believe that they
viii last Indefinitely still. But in
reality we have cut most of our tim
ber, not in the past 500, but in the past
rs years, to serve the great expansion
of population and industry, and there
IS no reason to expect a decline in
the rate of cutting as long as the
forests last.
"What has given us this illusion
of permanency? First our stored
timber which could be drawn OH with
increasing speed and with the ap-
pearance of plenty until the last stick
Of 1t should be done. Secondly, a
transportation system that has per-
,nitted our sawmills to follow the
rstreating forests and to ship their
product to distant buyers. Our mar
kets have been full of timber. Only
in the higher cost, the long haul the
near exhaustion of certain kinds of
wood and the sharply falling per
capita consumption have we dimly
sensed the dwindIingl of our forests.
I'VE do not know the forest stu
:tion down to the last acre and board
foot. but we know it well enough to
lrake us think and act. OF the old
forest the first explorers met we have
ia area only one-sixth left. and in
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