REGULATION OF TIMBER CUTTING 



289 



for the public safety ; and I should ex- 

 pect that such regulations as that would 

 be maintained ia any state. 



^^d^ether any effectual method of 

 regulation can be devised which will 

 come within the principle above sug- 

 gested, is a matter for experts in for- 

 estry, assisted perhaps by lawyers who 

 are in sympathy with the policy. Im- 

 posing actual hardship and loss upon 

 owners is not to be expected or de- 

 sired. Upon this legislative question 

 the statutes of Maine, even, remain si- 

 lent. Problems of administration are 

 unsolved. At a hearing before a leg- 

 islative committee on a bill to pro- 

 hibit cutting below a certain limit, an 

 intelligent witness humorously defined 

 the police power as providing a police- 

 man for every woodlot. His advice 

 to the farmers to oppose the bill was en- 

 thusiaFtically adopted. Enforcing reg- 

 ulations involves minute supervision by 

 state agents. Rural communities re- 

 sent official interference with their af- 

 fairs. The necessity must be vital to 

 recommend such a system to a legis- 

 lature of practical men. 



Assuming that effective regulation 

 will involve loss to the owner, a plan 

 of compensation through a sensible ad- 

 justment of tay?tion, designed to eu- 

 rourage timber raising, appears at- 

 tractive. The complications incident to 

 such a ])lan present great difficulties, 

 perhaps impossible of solution ; but the 

 subject may be worth considering. 



Taxation to-day. in mv opinion, is 

 the greatest menace to forest preserva- 

 tion. If I may be ]:)ermitted to digress 

 for a minute, I want to say just a word 

 about this question of taxation, for the 

 reason that I hinted at, and that was 

 hinted at by the voice from the women's 

 clubs. 



One principle is absolutely sound — 

 we all know it, and what we have to do 

 is to make everybody else know it — 

 and that is, that the annual taxation 

 on a crop which is constantly increase 

 ing in value each year means confisca- 

 tion of that property more certainly 



than any state regulation which I have 

 talked about. I say that nobody can 

 afford to plant and raise a crop that 

 takes fifty or a hundred years to ma- 

 ture and pay equal and proportionate 

 taxes during that time ; because it will 

 carry the value of that crop way beyond 

 what it has hitherto been supposed it 

 was worth. 



What should be done is to tax the land 

 at a practical nominal valuation, more 

 for the sake of keeping it on the books 

 than anything else ; that is the proper 

 method, such as $1 an acre or even less ; 

 or at the prevailing rate applicable to 

 all land. This method is simple and 

 should be adopted. 



I have an almost wicked desire to 

 impose the tax when the timber is cut 

 at so high a rate that they will never 

 cut it. lUit, taking a practical view, 

 it is my idea that that rate should be 

 fixed at a point which will cause the 

 owner to pay his proportion of the pub- 

 lic burden of taxation on that class of 

 his property lessened to a fair propor- 

 tion by the benefits which he has con- 

 ferred upon society bv leaving the tim- 

 ber growing on our hillsides. 



To many intelligent men the solu- 

 tion of the conservation problem ap- 

 pears to be in state or federal owner- 

 ship. Some states, notably Pennsyl- 

 vania anrl New York, have embarked 

 upon this policy, and notwithstanding 

 powerful opposition, the idea of federal 

 adoption of the same principle is gain- 

 ing ground. If th? public good re- 

 quires that the forest growth upon our 

 mountain slopes should be preserved, 

 for the benefit of navigation upon our 

 rivers, or for local reasons, the nation 

 or the state owes a solemn duty to its 

 citizens to preserve them by the most 

 effectual means, which is unquestion- 

 ably through purchase. The obvious 

 use of a forest as a source of timber 

 supply bears a varying proportion to 

 its benefits to the public health and pros- 

 perity. Owning such timber lands, the 

 government may proceed, unhampered 

 bv private rights, to manage its prop- 



