244 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



crease of fire hazard decreases his share 

 of the expense. 



Town or county responsibility for actu- 

 ally performing work cannot be relied on 

 at our present stage of popular education. 

 Politics, inexperience, apathy, are twenty 

 times as hard to overcome in twenty units 

 of government as they are in one. Theo- 

 retically, the nearer the administration 

 is to the thing administered the better, 

 but this is true only when equal compe- 

 tency and interest exists. This is borne 

 out by results where the experiment has 

 been tried, as in California. There the 

 law authorizes counties to appropriate for 

 fire prevention, but they do almost nothing. 

 The only way this plan could be made 

 effective is by compelling the counties to 

 act. 



Our wealth, population, and dependent 

 industries which should help pay for forest 

 protection are largely outside of the for- 

 est itself, not scattered through it as in 

 many eastern states. Only by state dis- 

 tribution can the cost be fairly equalized. 



It is unlikely that our voters would con- 

 sent, as they do in many states, to re- 

 lieving the timber owner entirely of the 

 burden of protecting his property. Nor 

 is it necessary that they should. A strictly 

 ofiicial system, in which only office holders 

 spend only public funds, seldom if ever 

 has the maximum efficiency until removed 

 from politics, and this Is hard to ac- 

 complish until its object is so thoroughly 

 approved and understood by the public that 

 no trifling is permitted. Self-interest must 

 be appealed to in order to insure sin- 

 cerity and, until the public fully realizes 

 its own self-interest that of the timber 

 owner must be utilized. 



The timber owner and lumberman him- 

 self, by no means always wholly above 

 education, must also abide by the opera- 

 tion of the law. He will support it bet- 

 ter if he has a part in it than if he regards 

 it solely as officially restriction of his lib- 

 erties. 



For these reasons, the most practical 

 system for western applications is one 

 which — 



(o) Places a fair share of the finan- 

 cial burden on the timber owner; 



(6) Leaves execution with him insofar 

 as his self-interest and technical compe- 

 tence tends to secure economy and effi- 

 ciency; 



(c) Assists him to make less willing 

 owners do their part: 



id) Makes the state bear enough of the 

 financial burden to discharge its obliga- 

 tion, enlist public support, and insure ade- 

 quate protection; 



(e) Gives enough supervision to insure 

 honest execution and enough backing to 

 enforce the law. 



(/) Provides for education and senti- 

 ment-molding that cannot be charged with 

 selfish motives. 



There are two ways to carry out this 

 policy. One is to enact a detailed law 

 which attempts to govern the co-opera- 

 tion between state and private effort bo 

 specifically that neither can secure undue 

 advantage. This assumes that both will 

 try to. The other way is to take every 

 precaution to get a competent non-political 

 state forester and leave him as free as 

 possible to deal with the matter. The 

 latter is by all means preferable. Bj its 

 very nature, and also by reason of Its 

 infancy, forest work is insusceptible of 

 accurate forecast of detail. It may vary 

 from year to year, from place to place. 

 While the state's attitude may be fixed by 

 legislation, that of the agencies It must 

 co-operate with must be developed; and not 

 by legislatures, but by the officials with 

 whom they deal. A cumbersome or In- 

 flexible law prevents progress of any kind. 

 A flexible law permits experiment and pro- 

 gress, which may be excellent. While it 

 also permits abuse, this may always be 

 stopped before much harm is done, be- 

 cause only one appropriation is involved. 



State funds for forest work may be raised 

 by direct appropriation or by a special 

 tax. The latter seldom can, or should' be 

 imposed until a thoroughly satisfactory ad- 

 ministrative system is established. We 

 should first get a competent forester to 

 work out a permanent, financial policy, and 

 present it to a later legislature for adop- 

 tion. Until this is done, liberal direct 

 appropriation is probably all that is safe. 



The amount of this appropriation should 

 have an actual basis, governed by the 

 acreage and value of the state's forest re- 

 sources and the risk to which they are 

 subject. The state's participation is merely 

 paying insurance to protect its prosper- 

 ity. Every thousand feet of timber saved 

 for manufacture and sale means the dis- 

 tribution of from $10 upwards among its 

 population. Every thousand feet destroyed 

 means an equal loss. The interest alone 

 on the annual loss by Oregon would pay 

 many times the entire cost preventing it. 

 Not to Insure against this loss is folly. 



There should, however, be some way of 

 inducing forest owners as a class to live 

 up to the policy adopted by the state. 

 While it should be possible to meet emer- 

 gencies anywhere that public welfare so 

 demands, as a general policy state funds 

 should go to help districts that help them- 

 selves, thus acting as a lever to encourage 

 private and county efforts. This also fits 

 the plan of placing the actual fire work 

 in the timberman's hands to ensure effi- 

 ciency. Again, it is obvious that where 

 the most private money is spent is where 

 large fires must be fought, and as large 



