farmer, merchant, artisan and professional man. It is their greatest
source of income, for lumber is the chief product which, being
sold elsewhere, actually brings in outside money.

That it is essential to the prosperity of every citizen to have
this contribution to his livelihood continue requires no argument.
From the manufacturing point of view alone, our forest resources
are as important to everyone of us as to the lumberman, and in many
ways more so, for if they are exhausted he can move or change his
business; while the dependent industries cannot. But our welfare
is at stake in a dozen other ways also.

OUR INTEREST AS CONSUMERS

Every person who uses wood, whether to build, fence, burn, box
his goods, or timber his mine, is directly interested in a cheap
and plentiful supply of timber. _Every acre burned, every cut-over
acre lying idle, raises the price for him without furnishing any
revenue with which to help pay it. Every acre saved from fire,
every acre of young growth, lowers it for him and puts money in
circulation besides._

Similarly, the cost to the consumer of most articles of every day
necessity is directly affected by the connection of forest material
with their production. Wood and water are almost as essential to
mining as are, hence influence the price of metals. In the form
of fuel, buildings, or boxes, if not as an actual constituent of
the product itself, wood supply bears a like relation to almost
every industry.