OUR FOREST "IV E ALT II 



183 



administration for the public good. That the first has achieved vic- 

 tories, belted continents, surmounted Alps, tunneled mountains and 

 worked miracles let us concede. Nevertheless, it has its limitations. 

 That this is true, experience, with its insurance investigations, rate 

 bills, meat inspection, pure-food legislation and the like, is daily 

 making clear. In the field of forest administration and exploitation — 

 notably when the forests in question control important river sources — 

 the limits of laissez faire were long since, and after fearful public loss, 

 recognized in Europe. 



In such a case, the individual initiative principle works directly 

 counter to the public good. Private interest impels the doing of almost 

 all the mischievous things above enumerated : clearing slopes for farm- 



The Ruins of a Brick House demolished ly ti:e Freshet of May 21, 1901. 

 Bakeksville, Mitchell Co., N. C. 



ing, stripping trees for bark and leaving the trunks to rot, cutting 

 clean for pulp, and felling at once for lumber purposes trees which 

 should be left indefinitely on the ground. Abusing the exploiter is 

 gratuitous, vain, unjust. His " greed," so called, and his disregard 

 for public interests are no greater than those of other men. He is 

 simply following the principle whereby successes have been achieved 

 and fortunes won on every side; but, in so doing, he is, nevertheless, 

 mining and sapping at the very foundations of national well-being. 

 The second principle, on the other hand, impels the quest not for 



