COMMENTS ON THK SNELL BILL 493 



that the bonded indebtedness which "grandson" would have to pay 

 would be $20 per thousand feet, while as a matter of fact that figure 

 referred to the probable stumpage value 50 years hence. The SoO 

 per thousand referred to was a guess of a practical wood working 

 manufacturer of what the price of white pine would be in 50 years. 

 What "grandson" would have to pay per thousand under the Massa- 

 chusetts plan would be less than $6, and this includes compound on 

 the cost of land and planting to the time of harvest. 



If the interest on the bonds for the purchase and reforestation 

 of National Forests was met by direct appropriation from current 

 revenue, the amount which "grandson" would have to pay as Ijonded 

 indebtedness on the land and crop would be less than 70 cents per 

 thousand, using white pine as the basis of calculation. Any "grand- 

 son" who would shy at paying TO cents for timber worth from $25 

 to $50 would not be worthy of a progenitor like brother Sherman. 



We realize now that we have not treated our woodlands properly, 

 but is the crime as hideous as Air. Sherman would lead us to believe? 

 Our virgin forests which cost us nothing represented great wealth. 

 We have simply changed the form of that wealth and everyone of us 

 has benefited by the process. We have turned the forests into money 

 and that wealth in one form or another will be handed down to the 

 next generation. True, we have gone too fast and too far, and it will 

 cost a great deal to restore our forests, but we are able to do so. Al- 

 though we have been wasteful in the process of converting our timber 

 into money, we still retain in one form or another the value received. 



The sale of bonds is the most common method of meeting expendi- 

 tures for projects which benefit others than the generation making 

 the improvement. More than three-fourths of the States, about 200 

 cities, and probably thousands of counties and townships have resorted 

 to this form of financing. It would be difficult to find a more favor- 

 able project for the use of bonds than growing trees, on which there 

 is no depreciation, and which in fact cannot appreciably benefit the 

 generation which plants them. Therefore, whether for Federal, State, 

 or municipal government, this method of financing the restoration of 

 our forests is perfectly legitimate, and the best thing about it is 

 that the succeeding generations will have no burden to bear in con- 

 nection with it, the profits from the timber produced meeting the 

 bonded indebtedness and providing besides a fine heritage for ' grraid- 

 son."' 



