460 United States. 



paternalistic attitude has developed in the legis- 

 latures of several States to a noticeable degree. Even 

 the judiciary has taken up this new spirit, and is 

 ready to sanction interference with private property 

 rights to a degree which, a decade ago, would have been 

 denounced as undemocratic and tyrannical. Two 

 courts have lately ruled that owners of timberlands 

 my be restricted, without compensation, as regards 

 the size of trees they may fell on their property, if 

 the welfare of the State demands such interference. 



The argument of the Roman doctrine utere tuo ne 

 alterum noceas, which forestry propagandists have so 

 strenuously used, seems finally to have found favor, 

 and the inclusion of the community at large, present 

 and future, as the possibly damaged party does not 

 appear any more strained. The idea of the providen- 

 tial function of governments, as the writer has called 

 it, seems to have taken hold of the people. The, 

 democratic doctrine of State rights, and restriction 

 of government functions has, even among Democrats, 

 been weakened through the long continued reign of 

 the Republican party, the party of centralizing ten- 

 dencies, to such an extent that the latest Demo- 

 cratic platform of a Presidential campaign (1908)out- 

 did the Republican platform in centralizing and pater- 

 nalistic propositions. 



It is proper to emphasize the growth of this social- 

 istic attitude, as it is bound to influence, and influence 

 favorably, the further development of forest policies. 



Nevertheless, it is still necessary to keep in mind 

 that the States are autonomous, and that, while the 

 federal government, in spite of the antagonism in the 



