FORESTRY AND THE WAR 151 



The British Empire Resources Development Committee bids fair to 

 outlast the war and become a part of the Reconstruction Committee, 

 which has begun its work. 



While in our country these more or less direct war influences are not 

 felt to a great degree, yet there is one development which has no direct 

 bearing on forests and forestry, but promises to be of the highest im- 

 portance in the development of forest policies ; it is the development of 

 socialistic tendencies. 



We are learning rapidly that government is a tool which can be made 

 efficient, and we are learning to realize community interests as superior 

 to individual interests. The extension of government functions has 

 grown marvelously in all belligerent countries, so that Bellamy's de- 

 scription of the communistic state is not any more so Utopian as it was 

 when first published, forty years ago. 



The States that have gone perhaps farthest in nationalizing industries 

 are the Australians. 



In New South Wales not only are railroads and coal mines operated 

 by Government, but woolen mills, cement, and even harness, factories 



West Australia adds brickyards and quarries, sawmills and steam- 

 ships, hotels and laundries, agricultural implements, and now even 

 retail bakeries, butcher shops, and fish markets. The Ontario Govern- 

 ment has undertaken at least the last enterprise, namely, to furnish fish 

 at reasonable prices. 



Under the influence of the Farmers' Nonpartisan League, the Xorth 

 Dakota legislature has gone so far as to declare for the principle that 

 the State may enter upon any manufacturing or industrial field, and has 

 taken up first State ownership of flour mills and grain elevators. 



These socialistic developments have not altogether been merely dic- 

 tated by war needs, but are bona fide changes of attitude toward private 

 enterj)rise. We may, to be sure, not claim so much for the many Gov- 

 ernment activities which the belligerent countries, including the United 

 States, have developed as war measures. 



Congress itself has become more and more an exponent of Govern- 

 ment ownership and control, with a tendency to State socialism. .\s 

 Mr. Mann declares: "\Ve are undergoing the greatest revolution in 

 government which this country has ever seen." 



After the war, to be sure, a formidable reaction may set in and we 

 may experience a return to unregulated industry and to the wasteful 

 competitive system, at lea.st in part. P>ut while this reaction may take 

 l)lace in directions of temporary character, there are other directions 

 in wliich Government control will ha\c shown itself so superior as to 



