10 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



lumber supply; this is not a State interest, one that the single State 

 can look after and control, not even an interstate concern for the 

 Federal government to regulate, but a truly national concern. 



And of similar national concern is the other, concomitant, economic 

 condition, namely the rational use of the soils unfit for food produc- 

 tion, of the thousands of square miles which are only fit for timber 

 growling, and which under private exploitation have been or are being 

 turned into wastes and deserts, thereby reducing the land assets of the 

 nation. While in the first place the municipal corporation, town or 

 county in which these wastes are located loses this property from the 

 tax list, the prosperity of the State is, of course, also affected by such 

 reduction of useful land, and finally that of the nation. 



We have learned as a general political principle that the State 

 should undertake only such work for the welfare of the community 

 as the individual cannot undertake better or as well, and similarly we 

 may extend this principle and call upon the nation at large when the 

 single States by themselves cannot solve as well or better such economic 

 problems, where the nation as a whole is concerned, and Federal action, 

 or at least cooperation of Federal and State Governments, is called for. 

 If continuity of a lumber supply and the recuperation of the waste 

 acres is a national concern, as I believe it is, then such a cooperation 

 should be called for. 



It appears that most of the States are unable to undertake the 

 solution of these problems on account of the financial burden it in- 

 volves. Even the Pennsylvania State enterprise in forestry has come 

 to a standstill on account of financial difficulties. Hence financial 

 assistance on the part of the Federal government is the first 

 requirement. 



This assistance should, perhaps, take only the form of lending the 

 Federal government's credit to a bonding scheme of the State for the 

 acquisition of forest lands and their management. The financial result 

 of such an enterprise, coming in a long future, such bonds should be 

 of long terms and their issuance distributed over a considerable space 

 of time as funds are required. 



Cooperation would then further be required of the Federal govern- 

 ment with the State government in controlling the expenditure of the 

 funds, the selection of purchases, the making of working plans and 

 their execution. 



Finally, State legislation would be desirable by which private forest 

 lands could come under State control not by purchase, but by contract 



