53 



paying annual taxes lies in this that the owner has, under the law been 

 protected from increased assessed value on his standing timber and can 

 therefore predict what his taxes on this timber will be, and that actual 

 increase in either or both value, and volume, is sure to occur, which will 

 not be taxed annually. 



The real purpose of imposing the products tax is to substitute this tax 

 eventually for that on standing timber and to avoid the impossible condi- 

 tion of imposing one kind of tax on a part of the timber cut in a region, and 

 another kind on the remainder. Young timber which has never paid an 

 annual tax must pay a products tax when cut. It is impossible to separate 

 this timber, physically, from timber which has borne the annual tax. 

 But it is a very simple thing to keep account of the original assessed value 

 of standing timber and wipe out this value on the payment of products 

 taxes from any timber grown on the owner's property. When this process 

 is completed, the substitute of the products tax for annual taxation is com- 

 plete for that property. 



This Massachusetts law failed as did its predecessors, not because these 

 principles were unsound, but because it still retained the principles of 

 classification, and of special requirements to practice forestry by stock- 

 ing the land with timber together with the need for special listing and 

 records. Less than fifty owners have availed themselves of it in five years. 



If we can accept these principles as established, there then remains one 

 feature to make a practicable law universal application and simplicity of 

 procedure the abandonment of special classification for timber as well as 

 for land and the establishment of the principle of taxing as such, and not 

 taxing the owner's intentions. This means doing away with the imprac- 

 tical features of the law, namely the special classification of lands and 

 their registration, the requirements regarding planting, etc., and inspection 

 by state officials. But does this leave any forestry? 



The answer is that forestry will never be crammed down an owner's 

 throat by a tax law. Given a square deal in taxation, the owner is free 

 to choose what use his land is to be put to, and the handicap against for- 

 estry is removed. This should be the purpose of the law rather than a 

 thinly disguised attempt to cajole occasional individuals into placing them- 

 selves under state control. 



This leaves a clear field for educational forces in forestry or even 

 for measures of necessary regulation, to apply to all alike. 



Can a law be framed which can be applied to all land owners within 

 a reasonable period? I believe it can if we do not require impossibilities. 

 To accomplish this we must depend on the existing local machinery and 

 make its requirements such that they can be met by land owners and 

 so that it will be to their advantage to do so. The plan proposed is as 

 follows : 



1. Establish by law the principle that all lands when reassessed for 

 taxation, must have the value of standing timber separated from that of 

 land. 



2. Provide that the value of standing timber when so determined, shall 

 not at any time thereafter be reassessed or increased. 



3. That the value of land, separate from tfcat of standing timber shall 



