490 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



just that much less of the existing debt, but we incur no new obligation. 



Furthermore, even if our financial situation were different, I am not 

 at all sure that I would approve Mr. Reynolds' plan of a bond issue 

 for National Forests. It does not appear to me to be exactly the right 

 thing for us to pass this obligation on to the next generation. Massa- 

 chusetts is such an old State and the day of her primary silvicultural 

 sins is so far past that her present generation may with some show of 

 reason disclaim responsibility for the deplorable condition of her 

 forests. Consequently it may be quite fair to pass the financial burden 

 of rehabilitating the forests on to the generation that will reap the 

 benefits of the investment. But for the nation as a whole to adopt such 

 a policy, while still continuing the ruthless devastation of our virgin 

 forests and while still allowing each year thousands of forest fires to 

 burn unchecked, does not appeal to my sense of justice. I realize the 

 justice of passing on to posterity a portion of the burden of paying 

 for improvements which posterity will use, but to pass on to posterity 

 the financial burden of repairing the destruction which we have caused 

 seems to me to be quite a different matter. It seems to me that each 

 generation that tenants the earth may reasonably be expected to repair 

 the physical damage it does to the property while occupying it. Conse- 

 quently, when this generation shall have repaired the damage it has 

 done to the forests of the country, it will then be time enough to 

 suggest issuing bonds and requiring future generations to pay the cost 

 of further forest ^'improvements." 



Suppose we now engage in an extensive national campaign of re- 

 forestation and put it over on the basis suggested by Mr. Reynolds. 

 Then consider the feelings of gratitude with which your grandson will 

 at some future day say: "My grandsire, peace to his ashes, enjoyed 

 the use of forests of trees hundreds of years old. They were nature's 

 free gift and cost him nothing. He was not selfish nor was he unmind- 

 ful of posterity. Oh, no! While he was cutting down the last 137 

 million acres of his free virgin forests he took thought of the needs of 

 his children and of his grandchildren. Yea, truly ; but he was also a 

 thrifty soul, so he cannily contrived a method by which he could trans- 

 mit to me the natural resources essential for my economic well-being, 

 and I find that this gift is very neatly tagged with a bill for the original 

 price paid by Grandpa and all intervening expenses with interest com- 



