Man of the Trees by Paul Hanley

Author:Paul Hanley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Regina Press
Published: 2018-02-17T16:00:00+00:00

A new kind of army

Leaving America for England, Baker continued to read about the American political scene with great interest. On hearing the results of the election he cabled congratulations to the president-elect. When fdr assumed office, with the country apparently headed for economic disaster, the theme of his acceptance speech was “back to the land with forestry—without vision a people perish.”

“I received a charming letter from him from Warm Springs, which prompted me to take the next boat out,” Baker wrote. On reaching New York, Baker wasted no time in contacting Henry Morgenthau, Jr. At that time Morgenthau was chairman of the Federal Farm Board, which was actively bringing marginal land into use for forestry. These lands had once been pine forests that had been cut and farmed, with poor results. Considerable success was achieved by the Roosevelt administration in New York, to the extent that of the one hundred thousand acres re-treed in the United States, sixty thousand had been planted in that state.

In conference with Morgenthau Baker recounted briefly his meeting with the president, adding, “What you and the President have done for New York you can do for the whole country. You can plant trees and grow gold for the nation and by so doing can serve the land, assist agriculture, and help to stem the oncoming timber famine.” He pointed out that he had written a report on which the largest reforestation corporation in the world had been launched. He presented facts and figures.

Morgenthau played devil’s advocate, though Baker instinctively felt that he was on his side, that he had felt the emotion of the ideal. Baker had to prove the economic aspects of the proposal; while he thought in millions of acres, Morgenthau thought in billions of dollars.

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