National Conference on Forest Products 
REMARKS BY SECRETARY OF COMMERCE HERBERT HOOVER 
It gives me a great deal of pleas- My own view has always been that 
ure to join with the President and the these great objectives can be best pro- 
Secretary of Agriculture in express- moted by the Government in research 
ing the appreciation which we all work and in cooperation with the in- 
have for the effort which brings the dustries themselves rather than by 
representatives of great industry to regulation. I am in hopes that we 
Washington in constructive public may be of service to you in the devel- 
service. The Department of Agricul- opment of the programs before you. 
ture has given fine support to the De- I conceive that industry has a greaf 
partment of Commerce in its efforts responsibility before it in the matters 
to establish better business practices which the President has set out so 
and the elimination of waste in the ably. That is your purpose and it 
wood-using industries. The confer- is in that spirit that you have assem- 
ences held by the Department of Com- bled. Thank you. 
merce for these purposes have already 
proved the earnestness and devotion 
of our industries in such service. 
INDUSTRIAL COOPERATION 
By J. WALTER DRAKE 
Assistant Secretary of Commerce 
The introduction of Secretary Gore be living on the scale we enjoy in 
moves me deeply because of my very America to-day; neither should we 
sympathetic relations with him and by have the production in America and 
reason of the splendid example of citi- consumed by American citizens of sev- 
zenship which he. has brought into eral times per capita of 75 years ago. 
leadership as head of this department In that growth, however, not only 
through the untimely death of See- of production but in productivity, and 
retary Wallace. I feel that there is in arriving at that standard of living, 
perhaps little for me to contribute fol- we have developed habits of tremen- 
lowing the statements of the two great dous extravagance. There are holes 
leaders of American thought and ac- all along the line of manufacture and 
tion who have been introduced by Sec- distribution through which hundreds 
retary Gore—the President of the of millions of dollars have leaked out. 
United States, and my distinguished This has been true of the use of our 
chief, whom you know from his rela- forest products ; of wood and the util- 
tions to industrial activities; and I ization of wood; it has been true to a 
certainly can add nothing to the fine large extent of all our natural 
presentation of principles so aptly ex- resources. The sun has been drying 
pressed by Secretary Gore. up here for thousands of years these 
One thought comes to me that I millions of tons of water, and while 
wish to express, however, before pro- science has advanced so that we 
ceeding further. It is brought out by reclaim the heat in applied energy, 
that word “cooperation” used by Sec- yet billions of dollars of power have 
retary Gore. The American people, been lost. I might give numerous 
including ourseives, had apparently other illustrations. Secretary Hoover 
gone waste mad in the 50 years pre- saw what must be done for the mil- 
ceding the Great War. If you will go lions of our people—that was to point 
back to the time of 1850 and compare out to the leaders, and through them 
the per capita consumption and pro- to all others in industry, that before 
duction of commodities in this country they proceeded in other directions to 
to those of the present day, you will the improvement of manufacture, the 
see that it has been increased many opening of new trade channels, or to 
times, even out of proportion to the the preservation of outlets for their 
ratio of increase of our population. goods at home and abroad, they must 
During that period we have had ap- take account of the extravagance and 
plied the first basic necessity for all waste that permeated the whole eco- 
commerce, that which is behind all nomic system, and provide corrective 
development of political, governmental, measures. This was the conception, 
and economic activity; that is to say, and I say it as a mere faét and not 
the development of modern transpor- with any desire to be personal, of a 
tation. Without that we should not great student of economics and a