The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1950-02-02
BY CONGRESSMAN
Bob Sccrest


l was one hundred percent right
when / voted against the Mar
shall plan and other forms of
spending money in Europe. In
the last congress many of us who
believe in conservation and real
ize that our strength will depend
upon the future abundance of our
natural resources, felt lucky to
get two and one-half million dol
lars appropriated for reforesta-
ton in the United States.
Now we learn that ECA has
approved an expenditure of al
most eight million dollars to re-
store Italy's forests. Under the
program sixty thousand Italians
will be trained and employed in
seven hundred and forty refor-
estation centers throughout Italy.
Another eight million dollar ex-
penditure has been approved for
Italy to finance vocational
training program consisting OF
more than $500 separate courses
and designed to employ and train
one hundred thousand workers
in more than fifty trades. They
expect to train carpenters, brick
layers, machinistS, electricians
and many other in du str a
workers. AS soon as they are
sufficiently skilled, ninety per-
cent of them will want to come
to the United States and take
Americans jobs. They are also
giving courses in grape and olive
cultivation while right in my
own district many veterans can
not get agricultural training due
to the fact that all the courses
are full. Some may argue that
Italian money is being spent on
these projects, but for every dol
lar spent, a dollar is credited to
the Italian government and the
whole plan had to be approved
by Marshall plan administrators
This is just a silly method OF
bookkeeping which boils down to
the fact that Uncle Sam is send
ing money to do countless things
abroad that should be done al
home.
In the last session of congress
only forty-nine of us voted
against the Marshall plan. Pro-
grams like those outlined above
convinced me that l never cast
a wiser vote.
WAYNE NATIONAL FOREST
The state of Ohio produces
only fifteen percent of the lum-
ber used in our state. Eighty-five
percent of all our needs are inn
ported. In an effort to build up
Ohio's forest resources, myself
and several other members OF
congress were able to get the
federal government to establish
Wayne national forest covering
areas in southeastern Ohio. That
we have sizeable national for
est in the 18th district is un-
known to many people. A large
unit was established in eastern
Washington county and southern
Monroe county. In this area ap-
proximately 1000 acres of land
was purchased by the national
forest service prior to the war.
The method of operating in this
area, known as the Muskingum
unit, is much different from that
followed in the western states.
The government will buy from
farmer only that portion of his
property which is unprofitable
for cultivation or pasture provid-
ing, of course, he does not wish
to sell the whole farm. In every
case the land owner is permitted
to retain all mineral rights and
the seller is also permitted to re-
main in his home either by a
reservation of ownership or by
a lease from the forest service in
case he makes an outright sale of
his entire property. By following
this method, profitable land re-
mains in production. 1t is the
plan of the forest service to use
residents of the area in the plant
ing of trees and for any other
work required. Under the exist
ing law 25 percent of all gross
revenue from a national forest
either from the sale of timber or
other sources, must be returned
to the county for maintenance
of roads and the upkeep of the
schools in, the area where the
forest is located.
In the land already purchased
there are 436 acres of saw tim
Der, 1908 acres of timber big
enough to be used for telephone
poles, 1887 acres of saplings and
500 acres of brush. The forest
service plans to plant 1923 acres
of the area in pine trees. This is
essential in order to build up the
soil to the point where hard
woods can properly grow. When
the pine trees can be profitably
removed, a good stand of hard
woods are already established.