CO-OPEKATION WITH THE STATES 479 



Other States have forests ranging in area from 60,000 acres to less than 

 1,000. 



As it will be necessary to purchase the bulk of the area to be ac- 

 quired, the cost will amount at least to three-quarters of a billion dol- 

 lars. But at the present rate of acquisition any considerable accom- 

 plishment will require a long time. Especially is this the case with the 

 States, as has been shown. Therefore, it is desirable not only to speed 

 up appropriations by Congress and the State legislatures, but, at the 

 same time, to devise a method by which the Federal Government can 

 aid the States. I am convinced that some co-operative plan is needed 

 for encouraging the States to adopt an adequate purchasing policy. I 

 suggest that the Government loan to the States the necessary funds 

 subject to the approval of the National Forest Reservation Commis- 

 sion, which is the commission that approves the purchase of lands for 

 National Forests. The Government should obtain the funds through 

 the issue of bonds, and the loans should be made on a long-term basis. 

 The National Forest Reservation Commission would make the actual 

 purchases subject to the approval of the corresponding State commis- 

 sion, and the Government would be secured in the transaction by re- 

 taining title to the lands until the debt was liquidated. At the same 

 time the States would be the custodian of the property and would 

 protect and manage it and collect the receipts. The Government would 

 lose nothing on such deals because it would charge the States enough 

 to meet the interest payments on the bonds, and the States would thus 

 get the benefit of the Government's credit and of low rates of interest. 

 The States should not find such transactions a heavy financial burden, 

 for the sale of forest products and the fees for grazing and other uses 

 should furnish the money not only to pay the interest on the loans, in 

 many cases from the very beginning, but also to build up a surplus to 

 pay off the loans. 



Before passing on to the next subject I might pause here to say that 

 some persons, especially some of those who became alarmed at the 

 proposal for a program of forestry on private lands, would have the 

 public buy all the large bodies of cut-over land and would make the 

 public the only large owner of forest lands. Entirely aside from the 

 questions of whether, in the light of the experience of other nations, 

 this would be good policy, and of whether our public would approve 

 it, the plan would not be successful in meeting present needs. If what 

 has been accomplished in the past is any indication of what may be ex- 



