SOME ECOXOMIC FACTORS 



SOME ECONOMIC FACTOKS INFLUENCING THE 

 FOEESTEY SITUATION 



By A. F. HAWES 



STATE FOKF.STER OF VKIIMIIXT 



IN the movement for the conservation of our natural resources, which 

 is now rapidly gaining strength in our eastern states, as well as in 

 the national government, the influence of many factors must be taken 

 into consideration, and the question may very well arise as to whether 

 our representative form of government, as exemplified in our national 

 congress, our state legislatures, and city councils, is sufficiently far 

 sighted to cope witli them. Can these cumbersome bodies, representing, 

 as tiny do. tlif contending interests of the day, and having their eyes so 

 closely focused on the present, look into the distant future and pass 

 judiciously on measures affecting the next generation? 



It has been a well-recognized policy, on the part of our local govern- 

 ments, to exempt new industries from taxation for a period of years on 

 the ground that such an inducement would counterbalance any advan- 

 tages that other towns had to offer, and that the new industry would be 

 an unquestioned asset to the community. Very W'w industries, how- 

 ever, are so constituted that artificial benefits can compete with natural 

 favorable conditions; such as nearness to the supply of raw material, 

 transportation facilities, water power, and a ready supply of efficient 

 labor. Even if tbese could be counterbalanced, the practise of tax 

 exemption has become so general that it is quite as easy for an industry 

 to secure it in one locality as another, and the result is a practise of 

 community throat-cutting without any appreciable benefits. So long as 

 the practise is tolerated it is, of course, impossible for single towns or 

 cities to prosper without entering into this unfortunate scramble. 



A still more important question is as to whether the proposed indus- 

 tries will be really beneficial to the locality in which they are established. 

 They are, as a rule, beneficial or otherwise, according as they have the 

 elements of permanency. That many lines of business of seeming per- 

 manency may fail, or after a few years' experience, remove to other 

 places, is, of course, to be expected. So a business, which, by the 

 nature of things, can exist only for a short time, may not be a damage 

 to a community if it leaves that community no poorer than when 

 it came. For example, a corn-canning factory may prosper in a 



