716 JOURNAI. OF FORESTRY 



tribute, to such disastrous consequences as to actually threaten the 

 sources of the water supply, indispensable to the life of the people, or 

 even the present or future protection of timber necessary for the in- 

 dustries by which the people in large parts of the State live and for 

 the construction of habitations in which they may dwell, then I am in- 

 clined to think that to meet such a crisis the Legislature may prop- 

 erly, within its constitutional power, limit the right of an individual to 

 use his own without regard to effect upon his fellows, and to compel 

 him to consider the higher and greater right of the safety of the whole 

 people in his use and application of that which only by the grace of the 

 State, that is, the people, he is permitted to possess. 



"As was said by Chief Justice Shaw, 'it is a settled principle, grow- 

 ing out of the nature of well ordered civil society, that every holder of 

 property, however absolute and unqualified may be his title, holds it 

 under the implied liability that his use of it may be so regulated, that 

 it shall not be injurious to the equal enjoyment of others having an 

 equal right to the enjoyment of their property, nor injurious to the 

 rights of the community.' Commonzvealth v. Alger, 7 Cush., 53, 

 84, 85." 



(St. Louis & San Francisco Ry. v. Mathews, 105 U. S., 1, 23.) 



If to protect an individual or a number of individuals in their com- 

 mon rights, if to insure free passage fron place to place of people and 

 commodities for the benefit of the public welfare and the progress of 

 society, the law can say that men shall use, or refrain from using, in a 

 specified manner, their land and its products, why can not the same 

 power of the State direct and control individual effort so as to prevent 

 the destruction or diminution of natural resources, as vital to the gen- 

 eral welfare and as essential to commerce as harbors for ships and 

 roads for vehicles? Surely the full, free development of the subject- 

 matter of commerce, is as necessary, as vital, as generally beneficial, as 

 the means by which the products of man's industrial efforts are dis- 

 tributed. Without production there can be no transportation ; and 

 without consumers there is no need of either. 



In drafting an act to effectuate such purpose, the rules and prin- 

 ciples which I have attempted generally to outline should be observed. 

 A substantial deviation from them would jeopardize the law. A strict 

 adherence to them, especially in showing the emergency to exist, may 

 impel the legislative branch of government to enact, and constrain 

 the judicial branch to sustain, a tree-conserving law. 



