XATIOXAL OR STATlv CONTlUJl, 107 



ment. I cannot recall a case in which any matter so assigned has been 

 sent back to the separate States, while it is easy to name many cases in 

 which affairs once in State control have been transferred to the Federal 

 Government, from which no one now suggests they should be removed. 

 If it be urged that the defeat of a single Federal appropriation might 

 endanger the whole plan, I reply that the danger and the argument 

 apply equally to the National Forests. Said Pudd'nhead Wilson, "Put 

 all your eggs in one basket and watch that basket". By that method 

 the National Forests have been preserved hitherto and today are safer 

 than ever. 



PARTICIPATION BY THE .STATE.S. 



The Committee's plan does not exclude the States, but proposes that 

 they shall share with the National Government in preventing forest 

 devastation. No plan could succeed which overlooked the vital neces- 

 sity of creating and maintaining genuine local interest in the care of 

 local forests. The States, and later on municipalities also, must of 

 necessity have an important share in preventing forest devastation, and 

 State forest forces must necessarily form essential parts of the nation- 

 wide organization. 



SUBSIDIES INEFFECTUAL. 



Under the State control plan each State must enact and maintain 

 certain standards of law and administration in order to receive finan- 

 cial assistance irom the National Government. Is it likely that the 

 great lumber States would do so? It has been my experience that a 

 Legislature can seldom be induced by considerations from outside to 

 take action against the opposition of interests dominant in the State. 

 The States where the lumbermen are strongest are, moreover, just 

 those where forest devastation must be stopped. It would only be 

 necessary for the lumber interests, when the time was ripe, to prevent 

 the passage of bills in the three or four great lumber States in order 

 effectually to cripple the whole plan of State control. 



Theoretically, if the National Government were contributing to a 

 State, and should discover that the conditions were being broken, it 

 could withdraw its aid. Practically, if the attempt were carried beyond 

 a mere threat, it would throw the whole question into politics, and 

 would succeed, if at all, only against all the political pressure the 

 State could apply. If it failed, the State's control would probably 

 collapse, with the net result of time and money thrown away. 



