Canadian Forestry Journal, October, 19J9 



423 



TAX THEORIES AND GROWING TIMBER 



(From American J^umberman.) 



Readers of the American Lumberman prob- 

 ably understand pretty well the basic theory of 

 the single tax principle, which is very simple, 

 namely, that natural resources rather than the 

 products of labor should bear the brunt of 

 taxation. The single taxers would levy upon 

 the value of land, but not at all upon the value 

 of any buildings upon it. Their idea is to dis- 

 courage land speculation, the holding of vacant 

 property for the increase of values brought 

 about not by the owner, but by the increase in 

 population, and they would encourage building 

 improvements by exempting them from taxa- 

 tion. 



This idea has found reflection to some ex- 

 tent in the taxation systems in many sections; 

 although building improvements are not en- 

 tirely exempted from taxation in most such in- 

 stances, they enjoy a lower rate than do the 

 /and values. 



The difficulty comes in applying this theory 

 to such natural resources as are mcluded m the 

 title of land. Valuable timber may often have 

 much greater value than the land upon which it 

 IS grown and the same may often be true of 

 mineral wealth below the surface. The pro- 

 posed Ralston bill recently discussed by the 

 American Lumberman would impose a Federal 

 fax upon land in holdings above a certain size 



and makes no distinction between land itself 

 and forest or mineral resources. 



Some single taxers have felt that this plan as 

 applied to timber did not produce the results 

 desired, but rather the reverse. The late J. J. 

 Pastoriza, of Houston, Texas, once expressed 

 himself to the writer as favoring some exemp- 

 tion or modification of single tax as applied 

 to timber. It, however, seems to have remained 

 for a member of the United States Forest Ser- 

 vice to point out the very obvious fact that 

 while annual taxation of the land is justifiable 

 because of the fac tthat land is imperishable 

 and has annual rental value such taxation 

 whether under our present form or under an 

 application of single tax is basically unjust as 

 applied to resources of mine and forest which 

 can be used but once and are consumed in the 

 use. He insists, therefore, that there should 

 be a single tax upon such resources, levied and 

 collected when they are harvested. The ortho- 

 dox single taxer having as his basic idea that 

 all natural resources must be taxed, and recog- 

 nizing virgin timber as a resource, has failed 

 to make this distinction, which when once stated 

 is very apparent. Of course, when the virgin 

 timber is replaced by a man-grown crop this 

 is a product of human labor, and therefore, 

 not taxable under any interpretation of the 

 single tax theory. 



AIRPLANE LOCATES LARGE FOREST FIRE 



The Victoria, British Columbia, Times, of 

 Sept. 27, has the following interesting item: 



For the first time in the history of this pro- 

 vince an airplane has been successful in de- 

 tecting a forest fire and reporting the location 

 to the fire ranger. While the airplane Path- 

 finder No. 2 was flying over Duncan, Pilot 

 Brown caught sight of a large amount of smoke 

 issuing from a densely wooded country. He im- 

 mediately proceeded to the spot, and on Cir- 

 cling overhead ascertained the extent of the 

 blaze and the exact location. On leturning to 

 Duncan he reported the matter to the fi'C ranger 

 who took steps to check and extinguish the 

 blaze. 



For some time past the Provincial Govein- 

 mnt has been asked by the AeriTl League of 



Canada to institute an aerial forestry patrol, 

 but so far nothing has been done. When Pilot 

 Brown saw the fire he decid'-d to >how how 

 quickly a fire could be located and informal ion 

 given for expeditiously subduing the flames. 



HEMLOCK BARK USEFUL 



The feasibility of using waste hemlock bark 

 from paper mill operations for tanning pur- 

 poses has been further demonstrated in recent 

 tests made by the Forest Products Laboratory, 

 Madison. Wis. The product is satisfactory to 

 the tanner, and can be prepared at a cost that 

 will allow it to compete with leaf bark. The 

 use of paper mill bark for tanning would mean 

 a source of income to the paper mill from a 

 material which is now of little or no value 



