MEANING OF FOREST AND FORESTRY 9 
are only paper.” This, no doubt, is in part true. 
It is, however, not the fault of the democratic form 
of government. It is due to the fact that the people 
which constitute it are not equal to it. After all, 
what is the State in America? It is simply an or- 
ganized community, the ruling powers of which are 
only persons which the people have chosen tempora- 
rily from their midst. The purchase of forest land, 
the management of forest land, or the sale of forest 
land depends upon what the majority of legislators 
may think best, and they, in turn, are supposed to 
comply with the wishes of the majority of their con- 
stituents. The wishes of the majority of the people 
in reference to the forest depend altogether upon 
their education and character—in short, public opin- 
ion, which is molded by our various means of educa- 
tion. 
Every honest, well-informed man who believes in 
government will agree that the State is doing nothing 
more than its duty when it does the following on the 
grounds that the forest is necessary, first, because of 
the protection which it affords, and, second, because 
of the industrial importance of the products which 
it yields: 
1. Each State should own and control those dis- 
tricts where forestry can not be properly. and profit- 
ably conducted by private parties. 
