A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1101 



and counties of substantial expenditures for these purposes which 

 otherwise would be imperatively necessary. 



Still another public benefit of outstanding proportions is the con- 

 servation and development of the extensive recreational resources 

 contained within the national forests. The economic and social values 

 of such resources are fully recognized, they are safeguarded and 

 improved, and their full and free enjoyment by the general public is 

 allowed under a minimum of regulation and restriction. As a result, 

 such values are assuming large proportions and are becoming important 

 factors in promoting the commercial development and material 

 prosperity of the regions in which they exist. 



It safely may be asserted that the officials and citizens of the 

 majority of the political units that contain national forests now con- 

 cretely recognize the existence and magnitude of the direct and indirect 

 national-forest contributions to local welfare above enumerated. As 

 the old order has changed, public thought has changed. The need for 

 standards of protection and management such as prevail in national 

 forests is becoming more and more generally recognized and accepted 

 by the citizens of the national-forest States and counties, but combined 

 with this there exists a realization that as a rule the States and counties 

 are unprepared, financially and otherwise, to assume at this time or in 

 the near future the burdens entailed by such standards of protection 

 and management. 



The fact that the more equitable apportionment and lower cost of 

 national-forest resources reflects itself in community welfare and 

 prosperity ; that the stability and permanency of industrial and com- 

 munity life promoted by established principles of national-forest 

 management permits communities to build for the future with cer- 

 tainty and security, thus creating stable rather than speculative values, 

 is less and less disputed with each passing year. 



Nevertheless, proposals have from time to time been made for 

 increases in the State shares of gross receipts from national forests. 

 In support of such proposals it has been represented that if the 

 national-forest lands had remained open to free appropriation and 

 consequent taxation, or if they had been ceded to the respective 

 States for administration as State forests from which the States would 

 derive all revenues over and above the costs of protection and manage- 

 ment, the returns to the States and counties involved markedly would 

 have surpassed those derived directly and indirectly from the national 

 forests. This viewpoint was particularly manifest in 1927, at which 

 time two bills to increase the State share of national-forest revenues 

 were before Congress. The circumstances dictated a detailed study 

 of the situation, which was made, covering the fiscal years 1923 to 

 1927 inclusive. 



DETAILS OF THE 1927 STUDY OF NATIONAL FOREST 

 RELATIONSHIPS 



The period covered by the study affords perhaps a clearer and truer 

 picture of the national forests as a form of Federal aid to the States 

 than would a similar study under current conditions. It was a period 

 of abnormal financial and economic ease. The Federal Government's 

 part was not influenced by considerations of depression relief which 

 more recently have materially increased its expenditures in the national 



