A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY QQ5 



many States, the owners of less than 6 percent of the privately owned 

 forest are making a conscious effort to keep it productive. Judging 

 from results thus far, there is little ground for confidence that the 

 major portion of our privately owned forest land will be used properly 

 unless there is some degree of public control. Such control is the 

 rule, at least for those classes of land most vitally affecting the public 

 interest, in nearly all except the more backward countries. 



PUBLIC REGULATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY IS NOT 



UNUSUAL 



The right of the public to regulate commerce and the various forms 

 of privately owned utilities which serve the public is generally recog- 

 nized in the United States as well as in other countries. Public 

 restriction on the use of forest land, however, has been opposed on the 

 ground that it involves infringement upon the rights of private prop- 

 erty and radical or even revolutionary extension of the sphere of 

 government. Consideration of the facts shows that that is not the 

 case. Such objections overlook the historical facts as to the nature 

 of private property in land and the functions of government. Title 

 to landed property in the United States, as in England, and in most, 

 if not all other countries, originated in a grant from the government. 

 In earlier times, the recipients or their successors were obliged to 

 render military or other service to the King or to the government as 

 a condition of holding the land. Even today, in the United States, 

 private ownership of land is not absolute. Land owners who fail to 

 contribute to the support of government through taxation forfeit 

 their land to the Government. Many owners of cut-over land have 

 been doing this in recent years. Both the State and Federal Govern- 

 ments retain, and frequently exercise, the right to expropriate any 

 private land that is needed for public purposes, and they even delegate 

 similar authority to certain classes of private corporations, such as 

 railroads, where such expropriation is in the public interest. 



A major object of organized government, whatever its form, is to 

 control or restrict, so far as the public interest may require, the actions 

 of individuals that may affect the welfare of other individuals or of the 

 group as a whole. Absence of such control would mean anarchy. The 

 character and extent of governmental restriction or control vary with 

 the political philosophy and the stage of economic development of a 

 people. As social organization and economic relations become more 

 complex, control becomes desirable with respect to matters over 

 which it was not desirable at earlier periods. With increasing density 

 of population and increasing need for efficient utilization of limited 

 natural resources, the necessity of social control over such use increases 

 both to prevent harm to individuals, and also to insure the present 

 and future welfare of society as a whole. From the earliest times, 

 governments have concerned themselves, in varying degree, with 

 bringing about that utilization of their land and other resources which 

 would promote the general welfare. 



FARM LAND 



With agricultural land, most countries have sought to accomplish 

 this primarily through distributing it to individual owners and insur- 

 ing more or less stability of ownership. The owners have enjoyed 

 practically absolute freedom to use their land as they saw fit, although 



