69 



selves. The private individual can hardly be expected to appreciate these 

 distant interests of his own motion in the management of his forest proper- 

 ty ; hence the state must guard them. 



The desire to get the largest present profit from his labor, which is the 

 only incentive of private enterprise, will be also a constant incentive to cur- 

 tail the wood capital necessary for a sustained yield management, and to let 

 the future take care of itself. 



The interest in the future lies with the state ; the state must interfere, 

 wherever the interests of the future clearly demand it. 



The state is to protect the broad interests of the many in the commun- 

 ity, against the inconsiderate use of property by the few ; and special stress 

 is to be laid upon the necessity of including the interests of the future com- 

 munity in this consideration, calling for the exercise of providential func- 

 tions on the part of the state. 



There is, however, one great generic difference between the forestry 

 business ana an otner productive industries, which places it after all on a 

 different footing as far as state interest is concerned ; it is the time element, 

 which we have again and again accentuated, and which brings with it con- 

 sequences not experienced in any other business. 



The result of private activity which is supposed to come from self-inter- 

 est is closely connected with the working of the well-known economic law 

 of supply and demand which regulates the efforts of the producer. This 

 law and the self-interest can be trusted to bring about in most cases a pro- 

 per balance rapidly, but in the forest business this balance works sluggish- 

 ly ; before a shortage in supplies is discovered and appreciated, stimulating 

 to productive effort, years will have elapsed, years which are needed to pre- 

 pare for a supply to become available in a distant future. How difficult it 

 is to get conditions of forest supplies recognized and appreciated, we in the 

 United States have experienced in regard to our White Pine supply. 



We must, then, admit that, even with regard to supply forests, the 

 position of the state may be properly a different one from that which it 

 would be proper and expedient to take toward other industrial activities. 



When, in addition to the more material function, the immaterial bene- 

 fits of a forest cover enter into the question or become paramount, there 

 can be no doubt that both principle and expediency call for timely exercise 

 of state activity. The so-called protection forests, therefore, which by vir- 

 tue of their location on steep mountain slopes or on sand dunes, or wher- 

 ever their influence on soil conditions, waterflow, and climatic factors can 

 be shown to be superior to their natura^ value, must claim a more intimate 

 and direct attention by the state. 



There are three different ways in which the state can assert its author- 

 ity and carry out its obligations in protecting the interests of the commun- 

 ity at large and of the future against the ill-advised use of property by pri- 

 vate owners : namely, by persuasive, ameliorative, or promotive measures, 



