This land is not valuable for
agriculture, and will contribute more to the general welfare under
forest than in any other way. To exclude it from the National Forests
would be no more reasonable than it would be in a city to remove from
taxation and municipal control every building lot not now covered by a
house. It would be no more reasonable than to condemn and take away from
our farmers every acre of land that did not bear a crop last year, or to
confiscate a man's winter overcoat because he was not wearing it in
July. A generation in the life of a nation is no longer than a season in
the life of a man. With a fair chance we can and will reclothe these
denuded mountains with forests, and we ask for that chance.
Still another attack, nearly successful two years ago, was an attempt
to prevent the Forest Service from telling the people, through the
press, what it is accomplishing for them, and how much this Nation needs
the forests. If the Forest Service can not tell what it is doing the
time will come when there will be nothing to tell. It is just as
necessary for the people to know what is being done to help them as to
know what is being done to hurt them.
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