Page Four
THE UNITED AMERICAN
MAY 1925
A Rational and Hopeful View of a World Without Forests
By F. WEISS, Research Engineer, Madison, Wisconsin
Those who are worrying over the fate of humanity when
wasteful generations of the present day have destroyed
our forests may find some relief in the outlook visualized
for future generations by Research Engineer Weiss, who is
not alarmed in the least, but rather fancies a pleasant
existence with more substantial substitutes. The following
article contains the chief points on the subject, embodied
in a report by Weiss, read before a meeting of the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers which was held early this
month at Madison, Wisconsin.
—Editor.
A NEW ERA in forestry is upon us.
™ With the advance in civilization dependence upon
forests has become appreciably less. Only in the
rural districts is wood now used to any extent for fuel.
In the cities, the burning of wood has become a
luxury, a sort of ornament for the home, coal and
oil having long since replaced it. Likewise, man has
ceased to depend upon the forests for his supply of
meat, and the pursuit of game is now almost
exclusively a sporting proposition.
A similar transformation is rapidly occurring in
regard to the forests as a source of building material.
Each year we are becoming less and less dependent
upon wood for the construction of our homes.
Both the per capita and total consumption of lumber
are rapidly declining, and for the more modern types
of buildings, wood has been almost completely sup
planted by other materials. In fact, in several of our
cities we even have legislated against the use of wood,
and such legislation is now spreading to the smaller
communities.
Hence the decreased use of wood for structural
purposes cannot be attributed entirely to the decreasing
supply, but is due in a large measure to the fact that
wood does not possess those qualities which our more
advanced civilization demands.
It lacks the strenght, or the resistance to fire, or
the permanency now required. There is no doubt
but that these inherent defects of wood, coupled with
its growing scarcity and increasing cost, are hasten
ing the day when wood, as a structural material, will
be used only for certain special requirements.
Anyone who has studied this situation with an
unbiased mind, will come to this conclusion. Hence
the substitution of other materials for wood is not
lowering, but on the contrary is elevating, the standards
of our construction.
In the vast majority of cases, wood is used as a
building material, not because it is the best material
available, but because it is the cheapest. So long as
we exploit our virgin forest resources, wood will
remain a comparatively cheap commodity, but when
we are forced to cut timber from forests that we
have grown, then wood will become a much more
expensive commodity than it is today.
The extent to which it is grown and the price
to which it goes will depend upon the ability of wood
to compete with other products in the world’s com
merce.
As a nation, we have been reckless in the treat
ment of our forest areas, but this is because those
areas are of so little value that few of us care to bother
with them. Thousands of cutover forest acres every
year are returned to the counties and states, because
of default of taxes.
In other words, the owners consider they are
not worth their tax burden. Even on the lands which
contain fine virgin forests, we market less than forty
per cent of the wood on such lands.
It must not be concluded, however, that we are
no longer dependent upon our forests, or that our
forests will cease to remain an important factor in our
life. While it is true that our use of wood as a con
struction material is on the decline, nevertheless, our
consumption of it for other purposes is on the increase.
This is particularly true of the manufacture of
pulp and paper and allied products. Here the con
sumption is increasing every year and undoubtedly
will continue to do so.
HEALTH AND BEAUTY
Anon.
SAY HEALTH AND BEAUTY, because if we do not have
both, we have neither. All may not agree with me. Some
may say that we can be healthy without being beautiful, but
that is not true from my standpoint. Did you ever see a healthy,
hearty, rosy-cheeked person, full of life, who did not enjoy
nature and all her beauties? And did you ever see such a
person (if you are not such a one yourself), that you did not
say, either to yourself or aloud, “How I wish I were like her.”
Would you wish this if you did not admire her? She has a
distinctive charm and beauty^ You can be like her! The
trouble with most of us — in this day and age of the automo
bile, street cars on every hand, taxie for a small sum, if
our own car is out of commission — is that we never think
of walking and drawing deeply into our lungs the pure fresh
air that God has given us to breathe. We do not appreciate
this air nearly so much as we would if compelled to pay for
it. Walking in the morning is one of the most beneficial
exercises we can take. Drink plenty of water during the
day — eleven glassess or more are none too many — walk
and breathe deeply and you will be healthy an<l beautiful.
Walk to work in the morning and see how much better
you feel during the day, how much more color you have in
your cheeks and how much easier your work will be during
that day. I know a girl who walks several miles to work
every morning. Two or three mornings after she started
walking, a friend in passing would ask her to ride. Now she
walks several blocks out of her way just to avoid this friend
and her car. Get this habit. It will keep you healthy and
beautiful and if you are loosing health and beauty, try this
simple remedy and watch the restoration of these wonderful
assets of life.
I
HISTORY OF THE SAFETY PIN
(Kansas City Star)
A historian of invention tells us that to the wails of a
long-suffering infant We owe the boon of the safety pin. Here
is the story: A little boy named Harrison, an English black
smith’s son, had to look after his baby brother. The baby
often cried, and its tears were usually traced to pin punctures.
The boy nurse tried a long time to bend the pins in such a
form that they could be used with safety to his brother’s
flesh. In this he failed; but his father, the blacksmith, per
ceiving the utility of the idea that the lad had been at work
on, took it up on his own account and eventually turned out
the safety pin that is in use today all over the world.
Man is like a tack — useful if he has a good head on him
and is pointed in the right direction, but even though he is
driven, he can go only as far as his head will let him.