If you found laws or appropriations
inadequate, would you not see to it that every representative in
the legislature knew his constituents demanded improvement?

The legislator or public official is anxious to comply with the
people's wishes, but he must know what the people want. It is essential
to _let him know_ that you want a progressive and liberally supported
state policy that will save our immense forest wealth from needless
destruction.

CHAPTER II

FORESTRY AND THE LUMBERMAN

THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES

The lumber industry is undergoing a process of reorganization which
reaches to its very foundations. It is so deep-seated as to be
almost imperceptible from outward evidence, but is of profound
significance to the owner of timber land and to the public.

Hitherto lumbering in the United States has consisted chiefly of
manufacturing and selling. The raw material has occupied no consistent
place in the equation. The value it has had in fixing the price
of the finished product has been merely in its relation to
transportation. Intrinsically it has been accorded no value. This
situation continued just as long as there was practically free
Government timber to be had by opening it up.

It continues now only relatively, however. Transportation must
always remain a great factor; the timber owner is still obliged
temporarily to meet his obligations by means determined under the
old basis. Nevertheless, the moment it became impossible to get
timber to manufacture without assuming the costs of producing,
such as fire protection, taxation and interest, began an era of
inevitable natural regulation. From that time on timber began to
assume a value which, although affected by transportation facilities,
must eventually be fixed chiefly by the cost of growing other timber
to compete with it.

TIMBER IS WORTH THE COST OF GROWING IT

In other words, the value of anything is what it costs to produce
it, whether it is a tree or a box of apples. That we found our
timber orchard growing when we came to this country does not change
this law. It was suspended temporarily while any individual could
profit by the growth produced without cost, but began to operate
again when he could no longer do so. We are now in a transition
period of adjustment. The important thing to remember is that this
will not continue until the entire output has actually borne the
full cost of production, for before then investments in standin