Tree Farms and Your Future

t. P. \(/eyerha euser, Jr. President, W eyerhaeuser Timber Company

Address delivered ot ihe Americon Poper & Pulp Associotion ond United Stotes Pulp Producers Associotion, lnc. Execulives' Conference, ot lhe New Woshington Hotel, Seoltle, Wosh., September 15, 1953.

Everyone in this room recognizes the difficulties in maintaining favorable public attitudes toward tl.re American business system during this period of economic uncertainty, unrest, and government by departmental decree. We are encouraged to believe that old ideas and prejudices are shifting as the new national administration gets into gear.

We in the forest products industries share the public relations problems of industry in general. And we are further burdened by a particularly acute poser in attempting to create positive relations rvith people. We deal rvith trees -one of N{other Nature's or,l'n products-around r,vhich are woven many sentimental threads, both in song and in verse.

You are familiar with most of the refrains:

"They cut down the old pine tree and hauled it away to the mill."

"Woodman, esPare that tree."

"Only God can make a tree."

These and innumerable similar phrases have had an immeasurable emotional effect upon the public's attitude toward the forests. Undoubtedly, emotionalism has conditioned the majority of opinions about our industry.

Visibility, too, has helped to condition these attitudes. Other natural resource industries-coal, oil, iron, and even fish-are underground and underwater for the most part and their "diggings" are not so noticeable as is a recently cut-over forestland area. So u'e find many persons looking askance at us.

Self-appointed forest saviors-and a number of politicians-have taken advantage of the Nation's inherent sentimentality, and they continue to excite emotions regarding the conservation of our forest resources.

A ferv days ago the wire services carried a "warning" sotrnded by a so-called private study organization. We were told that our fields, forests, and rvater resources are being drained at a suicidal rate. \Me can expect that Ford Foundations Resources for the Future X{id-Century Conference in December will accomplish a renerved public emphasis on any deficiency in the forest situation'

Many of the "Let's-scal'e-'em" conservationists have joined the advocates of big centralized government to promote more federal land acquisition. There has been a discernible trend toward mo1'e government o'ivnership of forestland. Few persons realize the degree of federal dominance in ourivestern states. During the last trventy years' federal ownership of all land in those eleven states has jumped from 35 per cent to 53.

Our forest industry is sensitive to public opinion; and u'e should be ! Most of us really care what people are thinking. About ten years ago this industry concluded that the public's attitude toward federal otvnership lvas directly proportional to the people's feeling about the way private forestland owners were managing their holdings. There appeared then an angry surge of emotional antagonism toward the industry. The time had arrived for eliminating guessrvork and finding out exactly what the American people thought about a highly controversial subject- We made an extensive public opinion survey. The results of that survey indicated a disturbing lack of public understanding of our industry.

So, ten years o{ continuously increasing effort u'ere expended by A.F.P.L (American Forest Products L-rdustries, Inc.) disseminating information. \\re tried to explain to all rvho would listen our forestry policies, manufacturing practices, and the significance of our contribution to the American economy. At the same time u'e tried to lift ourselves by our bootstraps and implove industry performance by promotion of Tree Farms, Keep Green, and Trees for Tomorrow. We talked more, and had more to talk about.

How have we made out ? Recently we took a second national survey to check our pl'ogress and to seek some new data so that we could stav on the informational beam. While rve in the industry know the gap between forest growth and forest drain is being and probably has been closed, we rvondered if the public knorvs it. And rve wanted to find out if the public knc ws the part privaie forest industries played in creating tl.ris favorable situation.

Well, our efforts to tell the story of our industry have fallen far short of what rve hoped to accomplish. The second survey reveals that the American people generally remain uninformed and misirrformed regarding our forest resources and the economics of our industry.

A large percentage of the people still favor increased government ownership of forestlands. An alarmingly substantial group believes private companies are not sufficiently concerned about the proper management of the Nation's forestlands. The majority says forests are not being replaced as rapidly as they are being cut. Our own industrysponsored programs-Keep Green and Tree Farming-are more often attributed to various governmental agencies than to the private industry associations which gave them life and promote them.

Ten years ago about half the people thought that our timber resources were being depleted at a serious rate. Today 63 per cent believe they are.

While 54 per cent of the people admit they have heard about tree farms, only i4 per certt recognize them as privately owned, privately managed. Most assume tree farming is a conservation effort by federal and state governments. We must emphasize that the tree farm program is industry-sponsored and that the acreages so dedicated are privately owned.

Our effort to explain the industry has been well directed and fruitful, but we have not realized how weil the public ear has been tuned to the talkative conservationists and to those in public office who traditionally consider it their function to keep the public alerted through the "Shock Method." The louder we have talked, the louder has been the talk on the emotional level.

The major finding from the survey stands out: Large segments of the American public have absolutely no clearcut impressions of the lumber, PulP, and paper industries.

And I am convinced that the people who don't know about the progress being made by the forest industries might as well be listed among the opposition. Until we can gain their unders@nding of our programs, their potential good will is lost to us.

The survey results are not entirely bleak. Our industry scores well in some important areas. We are considered progressive in adopting new ideas and better ways of doing things-but apparently not in forestry. We are credited with having developed new and improved products, with using new and better machinery, and with greater wood utilization. As an industry, we are not considered monopolistic.

No'iv that we know r'r'hat the neighbors next door are saying, we know what our information programs must stress, and we know that the volume of our effort must multiply again and again to overcome the volume of negative propaganda.

Too many citizens do not realize the vital role played by the forest industry in proper Jorestland management and whole-crop utilization. And, still worse, many of our fellow citizens look upon the forest industry role as a destructive one. It is important for us to know that there are little regional differences in opinicn-our job is nationwide !

Certainly, when anyone checks the forest industry record for the past eleven or twelve years, we cannot be charged rvith inactivity. Tree farms have been established in 35 states. Today we have more than 28 million forestland acres of crop-producing, tax-paying woodlands in that progressive program.

More than 4,500 (hard-hatted) industrial foresters have been directly employed by the forest industries. What the public does not know is that the private forest industries have an almost undisputed leadership in the field of wise rvoodland management.

We must do more than provide useful products to the people of America. We have to take the time to tell those people what we are doing, how we are doing it, and why \\re are doing it. We must reiterate our aim of creating a permanent forest industry capable of producing a continuing supply of new and better products by managing our private industrial forestlands as tree farms. It's like a wife No matter how constant and loving the husband is, she still needles him into telling her how much he loves her I No amount of doing satisfies her-she wants to hear it.

Poles Aport

They tell about the time when an Eskimo from the North Pole met an Eskimo from the South Pole. The one from the North Pole said: "Glug, glug."

And the one from the South Pole answered: "Glug, glug, youall."

Heqrts qnd Homes

The roses dream of the dawn-light, The river longs for the sea, And for aye the birds are singing, Of nests in the wild-wood tree; For the roses the dawn-light's splendcr, For the river, the curling foam, For the bird, a nest in the wild-wood, For the human heart-a home.

-Adeline M. Conner.

Indispensoble

By Berton Braley

I care not what your place may be, A job that's most laborious, With mighty little salary Or one that's fat and glorious. But be your labor great or small, Of this you must be sensible, Some other guy can do it all, No man is indispensable. When you begin to swell with pride, And cater to the gallery, And put on lots of "dog" and "side" Because they've raised your salary; Why then's the time you'll stumble quick, Such ways are indefensible, Some other guy can do your trick, No man is indispensable. It's well enough to know your worth, And know just what to do with it, But don't imagine that the earth Will quit when you are through with it, No, it will roll upon its way, And what seems reprehensible, Some other guy will draw your payNo man is indispensable.

The Most Vqluqble Treqsrrre

(A bulletin of Baker Library, Dartmouth College, quotes the following from the Sun Ts'ung-t'ien, 17th, 18th Centuries.)

Books occupy the same position in the universe as the soul does in the human body. Just as a human body with- out the soul is scarcely different from a brute's, so there is no difference between a bookless world and a primitive age. Thus, books are the most valuable treasures in the worl'd. For it is in books that we find discriminated the good and the bad in human nature, and the strong and the weak points in the ways of the world.

In this world of ours it takes well-read men to "cultivate their persons" and consequently to "govern rightly their states." In short, books are man's most valuable treasures in the world. If at last you have obtained the most valuable treasure in the world, if of all persons you alone have taken possession of the world's most valuable treasure, neither leaving it to molder in dust nor letting it be cast away in the den of an ignoramus, can this but be the most beautiful thing in the world.

Scotch Ball

"Does McTavish go to ball games often?" '

"Only when there's a double-header."

The Volue of Sermons

They needed a preacher very badly in a small backwoods town, and when some of the citizens saw a ministeriallooking fellow ride in on a dilapidated horse, a committee went to meet him, and the following conversation ensued:

"Preacher?"

"Yep.t'

"What'll you charge to preach here Sunday?"

"Twenty-five dollars."

"We ain't got that much."

"All right, fifteen dollars."

"We ain't got that much neither."

"FIow much have you got?"

"Ain't you got a serrnon you can give for about five dollars?"

"Yes, I have, but I warn you-it ain't worth a damn."

Bigomy?

He had come late for dinner, and his wife had given him an awful tongue lashing in front of the kids. It was still rankling in his craw when the family gathered in the living room after dinner. Little Willie was studying his home work, and he asked:

"Paw, does bigamy mean that a man has one wife too many?"

"Not always son," said Paw, thoughtfully, with a side glance at his wife.

"\Mhat do you mean by that, Paw?" asked the son.

"Well," said Paw, slowly. and letting the words drip out; "Sometimes, son, a man may have one wife too many, and still not be a bigamist."

And after that there was a long silence.