410 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



estry is our failure to realize that forest management as a financially 

 possible undertaking cannot succeed without some form of government 

 subsidy. That is why "we have forestry everywhere except in the 

 woods." Forestry has never succeeded in other countries without 

 some form of Government support. If the conservation of our forest 

 resources is essential to the welfare of the nation, as we believe, is it 

 not worth something to us in dollars and cents, and should we not be 

 ready to concede that fact and take action accordingly ? 



Other industries of at least no greater value to the nation have 

 already been fostered by Government support. Men who have studied 

 the sugar-beet industry, for example, state in no uncertain terms that 

 that enterprise has never been able to stand by itself in any country, 

 but must have governmental aid in the form of a discriminating tariff, 

 reduced taxation, or some form of subsidy. If the raising of sugar 

 beets (which improves the quality and value of land, gives large em- 

 ployment to labor, and enables the country to be more self dependent) 

 is worth enough to the nation to justify the expenditure of public 

 money for the support of the industry, most assuredly then the many 

 advantages of forests, which need not be enumerated here, would 

 justify even to a greater degree the financial support of the nation. 



A review of past policies in the United States in regard to essential 

 industries nowhere reveals a case where private enterprise has been 

 forced into an undertaking which does not offer financial remunera- 

 tion, even though it may be an enterprise vital to the whole nation. 

 Even during the stress of war, we did not ask any industry to produce 

 for the nation at a financial loss. We needed wheat, meat products, 

 and many other commodities, but we did not demand that they be pro- 

 duced at a financial loss to the individual. To the contrary, the Gov- 

 ernment took steps to see that the producer was adequately rewarded. 



The growing of forest products involves a number of elements not 

 found in the production of other agricultural crops. They include 

 such things as long-time investment, the risk of loss by fire and other 

 causes, the uncertainty of future yield and prices, and the irregularity 

 of returns on the investment. 



The various plans for making forestry financially remunerative, 

 such as increased protection from fire, and a reduction in taxation, do 

 not meet the fundamental difficulties indicated above. In other words, 

 the practice of forestry by private interests is a difficult undertaking, 

 and while it may succeed in certain specially favored localities, with 

 the support indicated above, such unaided efforts can never solve the 

 problem in the United States. Government ownership of all forest 



