PERiODiCAi, lite;rature: 299 



POLITICS, EDUCATION, AND LEGISLATION 



The minister of the interior has asked all the 



General municipal councils in France for suggestions on 



Reorgani::ation a proposed law which he plans to present to 



of the Police Parliament transferring to the authority of the 



prefect the greater part of the police powers 



which the municipal authority now exercises in accordance with the law 



of April 3, 1884, and organizing a rural police which will replace the 



present institution of rural guards. The proposed law is of interest 



to foresters and forest owners because it would afford better protection 



to private forests than the present system. 



S. T. D. 



Un projet de lot "tendant a la reorganisation generate dc la police." Ch. 

 Guyot. Revue des Eaux et Forets, 57:100-103. 1919. 



Although they differ as to methods for accom- 

 Is Socialisation of plishing it, most socialists agree that the forest 

 Forest Industry industries should be socialized in order to avoid 

 Practical? the anti-social effects of possible monopoly, to 



guarantee the maximum sustained production at 

 the minimum cost, to assure continuity of employment and of supplies 

 of forest products, to allow the State to regulate the disposal of forest 

 products, to assure the delivery of material imposed by the peace 

 treaty, and to keep prices lower than they would be under private own- 

 ership. The author holds that monopoly is not possible, since the 

 average size of the large holding in Bavaria, for instance, is only 500 

 hectares, while most of the private forests are held by a multitude of 

 small owners whose average holding is only a little more than 3 hec- 

 tares. Production on larger private forests is now as great as on State 

 forests, while peasant woodlots cannot be interfered with without in 

 many cases making it impossible for them to carry on farming. To 

 reduce the wealth of private citizens will impair the credit of the 

 State, and will make it harder to fulfill the treaty obligations. More- 

 over, if the private forests are turned over to the State their yield can 

 be seized upon as part of the indemnity and will not be available for 

 domestic needs. Under State ownership there would probably be less 

 efficiency, due to bureaucratic inertia and political influences. The 

 State already owns enough of the forest area to check monopoly and 



