Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/121

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FOREL—FORESTRY
101

had led other manufacturers of automobiles to form the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers. They paid for the privilege of using the engine and announced that they would sue any unauthorized producer. Suit was brought against the Ford Motor Co. the very year of its organization, and prospec- tive buyers of the Ford cars were warned that they would be subject to prosecution. The Ford Co. advertised their car widely, declaring that they would give full protection to their customers. At first the suit brought against the Ford Co. was successful but on appeal it was declared in 1910 that the Selden patent applied to a particular type of engine only, and that the engine manufactured by the Ford Co. did not infringe the patent. In 1909 the Ford Co. erected a factory just outside Detroit, covering 47 acres. As the demand for cars increased, other plants were erected in Canada and England. In 1914 a profit- sharing plan was announced whereby a large percentage of the company's profits would be returned to the workers, and at the same time a minimum wage of five dollars a day was fixed. In 1919 the minimum wage was set at six dollars for approxi- mately 28,000 of the workmen. The company undertook to do much for the welfare of its men, providing a large body of social workers among them, and furnishing legal and medical aid free. A school was founded for giving instruction to foreigners in the English language. This was all undertaken with the idea of securing greater efficiency in the shops. In 1914 Mr. Ford contributed $2,000,000 to a hospital that was building in Detroit, and later added $3,000,000. On the outbreak of the World War he came forward as a pronounced pacifist, and in Sept. 1915 announced that he had set aside $1,000,000 to fight preparedness in the United States and other countries then at peace. In Dec. 1915 he chartered a ship, and with a band of invited pacifists sailed for Europe, hoping to bring about a con- ference of the belligerents that would result in peace before Christmas. But nowhere was official recognition given the party and dissension arose among themselves. Mr. Ford, after reaching Christiania, returned to America, where he continued to work against preparedness. He assailed the Navy League and the National Security League, alleging that they were supported by munition manufacturers. In Sept. 1916 be brought suit for $1,000,000 against the Chicago Tribune for libel, having been called an anarchist in one of its editorials. After three years' litigation he was awarded six cents and the costs of the trial. When America entered the World War he gave full support to the Government and became a member of the Shipping Board, devoting his attention to standardizing production. He placed his efficient plants at the disposal of the Government and some were converted into producers of submarine chasers and small tanks. In 1918 he accepted the Democratic nomination for U.S. sen- ator from Michigan, but his Republican opponent, Truman H. Newberry, was awarded the election. Charges of excessive expenditure and fraud were lodged against Mr. Newberry, who was tried and convicted. On appeal the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision. On Jan. 12 1922 the Senate decided, by a vote of 46 to 41, that Newberry was entitled to retain his seat. On Jan. i 1920 Mr. Ford resigned as president of the Ford Motor Co., being succeeded by his son, to devote him- self to developing the farm tractor business. Shortly before, he had purchased the Dearborn (Mich.) Independent.


FOREL, FRANCOIS ALPHONSE (1841-1912), Swiss geographer, was born at Merges on Lake Geneva Feb. 2 1841. He was trained for and practised in the medical profession, but his life-interest was found in the lake on whose shore he lived, and, from that, in limnology, the science of lakes. The study of Lake Geneva in all its associations led him to that of geology, physics, biology, and anthropology, and he set forth the results of his researches in the three stately volumes of Le LSman (1892-1902). On the science of limnology more generally his standard work is Hand- buck der Seenkunde (1901); in this connexion his investigations of the previously mysterious movements of lake-waters known as seiches call for special notice. Among other researches of Fo- rel's, those in seismology and upon Swiss Alpine glaciers are note- worthy. He died at Merges Aug. 7 1912.

FORESTRY (see 10.645). The period 1910-21 was dominated by the abnormal conditions produced by the World War of 1914-9, which demonstrated, as only such a gigantic upheaval could have demonstrated, the vital importance of timber in time of war and the necessity for maintaining adequate and readily accessible supplies of this commodity.

(1) BRITISH EMPIRE. The war found Great Britain, accus- tomed to rely mainly on imports from abroad, without any efficient organization for the supply of home-grown timber. The development of the submarine campaign, the growing scarcity of shipping, and the necessity for employing the available shipping as little as possible for the conveyance of such a bulky article as timber, served to focus attention on the question of ensuring supplies of home-grown timber in the event of another great war. The whole question was examined in detail by a forestry sub- committee of the Reconstruction Committee, appointed in 1916, the terms of reference being: " To consider and report upon the best means of conserving and developing the woodland and forestry resources of the United Kingdom, having regard to the experience gained during the war." The final report of this sub-committee (Cd. 8881, 1918) drew attention to the risk in- volved if future home-grown supplies are not safeguarded, and proposed a scheme calculated to render the United Kingdom independent of imported timber for three years in an emergency. This scheme, while making due allowance for an improved yield from existing woods, recommended the afforestation in 80 years of 1,770,000 ac. of unplanted land, of which two-thirds should be planted in the first 40 years. The cost of the scheme was estimated at 3,425,000 during the first 10 years, with a possible total expenditure of 15,000,000 during the first 40 years, after which it was reckoned that the scheme should be self-supporting. Apart from the question of financial returns, however, the sub-com- mittee justified its proposals on the ground that forests are a national necessity and that the interests of national safety de- mand that more timber should be grown in the British Isles. With the view of carrying this scheme into effect it was proposed to constitute " a forest authority equipped with funds and powers to survey, purchase, lease and plant land and generally to ad- minister the areas acquired, with compulsory powers to be exer- cised, after due enquiry and the award of fair compensation."

The recommendations of the sub-committee resulted in the passing on Aug. 13 1919 of the Forestry Act (9 and 10 Geo. 5, ch. 58) and the constitution of a forestry commission consisting of three paid and five unpaid members equipped with wide powers for the promotion of afforestation, the production and supply of timber, the purchase or lease of land suitable for afforestation, the purchase or sale of standing timber, the establishment of woodland industries, the promotion of forestry education, ex- periment and research, and the destruction of pests and vermin. This marks the most important step yet taken in regard to British State forestry; as a result a definite programme of land acquisition and planting has been framed and is being carried out, a forest service has sprung into being, and the outlook of State forestry in the United Kingdom is clearer than it has ever been in the past. Not the least of the benefits conferred by an extensive scheme of afforestation will be the encouragement of small holdings by providing employment in the form of forest work at a time of the year when agricultural work is suspended.

The Imperial Outlook. The year 1920 marked an important step in the progress of forestry in the British Empire, in that for the first time a forestry conference representative of the various parts of the Empire assembled in London at the invitation of the British Forestry Commission. The deliberations of this conference tended to confirm the view that, generally speaking, the Empire is dissipating its vast natural forest resources, and that if the conservation and regeneration of the forests are to be carried out effectively, each Government of the Empire should lay down a definite forest policy to be administered by a properly constituted and adequate forest service. The conference emphasized the necessity for a systematic survey of the forest resources of the different parts of the Empire, with a view to the collection and dissemination of facts as to the state of the forests and the de-