A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1065 



The theory underlying the operation of the Clarke-McNary Act is 

 that the Federal Government should furnish some 25 percent of the 

 cooperative funds utilized. In terms of the amount which is esti- 

 mated as necessary to give adequate protection, it is seen that in 1932 

 the Federal Government underwrote 47 percent of its maximum esti- 

 mated obligation (one quarter of the total) and the States and private 

 owners 44 percent of their three quarters. 



An inspection of the record by regions, however, reveals striking 

 inequalities. First, with reference to the performances of all agencies 

 taken together, we find that in 1932 the Middle Atlantic group of 

 States has already substantially exceeded its share of expenditures 

 estimated as necessary, the percentage given being about 109. Next 

 in order come the Lake States, whose actual expenditure is 88 percent 

 of that needed. For the northern Rocky Mountain region the figure 

 is 72. For New England it is 63, but there the fire season was very 

 favorable, and something less than 100 percent would here have been 

 expected in any event. The South and Central States each show the 

 strikingly low figure of 16 percent. In the South it is to be noted 

 from column 12 that the figure representing the Federal expenditures 

 is 7 percent of the amount needed from all agencies, or, as shown in 

 column 3, approximately 45 percent of the entire actual expenditures 

 for the year. For the Central States there is a similar correspondence 

 between the low percentage for all agencies (column 16) and the high 

 percentage, approximately 42 percent, for the Federal share (column 

 3). This large sharing by the Federal Government follows from the 

 Federal policy of guaranteeing a minimum allotment to any State 

 which can qualify, the minimum being a certain percent (8 percent for 

 1933) of the estimated amount needed for adequate protection. 



Reference has already been made to the difference between the 1930 

 estimate of annual cost for adequate protection ($13,386,273), and the 

 larger estimate arrived at in the section covering Protection Against 

 Fire. The 1930 estimates were made for each State separately and in 

 cooperation with the individual State forestry departments. They 

 attempted to give the costs of organization and improvement pro- 

 grams necessary to afford adequate protection on the basis of ex- 

 isting conditions. The basic figures for this series of estimates are 

 revised at approximately 5-year intervals, so as to take account of 

 changing conditions and new information applicable to problems of 

 the individual States. Figures for the larger estimate were arrived 

 at by a careful adaptation of actual costs upon national forests and 

 upon standards of protection set up for each major forest type. They 

 were calculated by regions and not by States. 



SHARING THE COST OF PROTECTION BETWEEN PRIVATE OWNERS AND 



THE PUBLIC 



When the Clarke-McNary law was passed, the theory was held that 

 the cost would ultimately be divided at least roughly as follows: 

 Private owners, 50 percent; States, 25 percent; Federal Government 

 25 percent. 



In table 3, columns 7, 5, and 3, we find that the actual percentages 

 for 1932 over the country as a whole were: Private owners, 18.4 per- 

 cent; States, 55.1 percent; and Federal Government, 26.5 percent. 

 The position of the private owners and the States thus represents a 



