332 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Even by suit, however, there is no redress beyond the amount actually 

 realized by the sale. 



Rather than follow drastic procedure of this kind, however, the 

 Bureau aims solely at a just, impartial enforcement of the law. It is 

 the intention to collect all of the taxes due but only such as are due. 

 It is the constant aim to disturb business as little as may be possible and 

 be careful to see that complete equity is secured between industries 

 and between different firms and members of the same industry. In 

 the furtherance of this idea, the Bureau has called freely upon the 

 industrial and legal world for advice and assistance. 



Back in the early days when the excise and later direct taxes were 

 light, no one bothered about them very much. They annoyed, per- 

 haps, but did not hurt. Inequities and inequalities there were, and they 

 troubled a bit, but one gained more by forgetting these and applying 

 himself more assiduously to his business. The country came suddenly, 

 in the year 1917, and sharply, too, against a real wall. The tax rate 

 of necessity had jumped and the sharp rise forced attention abruptly 

 to it. 



The vast taxes which the American people have been called upon to 

 pay have been burdensome. This burden has. however, been gladly 

 met. Lumbermen in general are practical, hardworking pioneers. They 

 are too prone, perhaps, to pay attention to the field features of their 

 business, at the expense of office work and accounting methods. Gen- 

 erally speaking, the lumber industry, because it has been lax in its 

 accounting, has been a little more severely hit by the tax than it other- 

 wise might have. They ask, however, with the rest of American busi- 

 ness, only that each individual and each separate industry receive the 

 same fair and impartial treatment. A single evasion or an incomplete 

 understanding resulting in an inequitable consideration of an industry 

 means merely that their share of the burden must be shifted to other 

 shoulders. 



The difficulty encountered in administering these heavy tax laws was 

 particularly grevious in dealing with the so-called wasting industries ; 

 that is, mines, oil and gas, and timber. These are all very similar to 

 a degree, and yet there are material differences. They are alike in 

 that they deal with a present capital asset which is exhaustible. They 

 are alike in that they are concerned with a natural resource and that the 

 conversion into a useful product is a particularly hazardous enterprise. 

 The essential differences, however, are as fully apparent as the items 

 of similarity. Timber is a crop, grown on top of the ground. It is the 



