United States. 



uix^ ilonstitution sovereign in itself as far as its internal 

 administration is concerned, it is evident that no nni- 

 formity of policies can be expected, except so far as 

 imitativeness, in which the American citizen excels, may 

 lead State after State to repeat the experiment at- 

 tempted by one. The federal government has no direct 

 jurisdiction in matters concerning the management of 

 resources within the States, except so far as it still owns 

 lands in the Western, so-called Public Land States, and 

 a few parcels in the Eastern States over which it still 

 retains jurisdiction. 



^ The severest test of democratic institutions is expe- 

 rienced when the attempt is made to establish a policy 

 which shall guard the interests of the future at the ex- 

 pense of the demands and needs of the present. Democ- 

 racy produces attitudes and characteristics of the peo- 

 ple which are inimical to stable economic arrangements 

 looking to the future, such as are implied in a forest 



I policy. The vast country with an unevenly distributed 

 and heterogeneous population presents the greatest va- 

 riety of natural, as well as of economic conditions; the 

 immediate interests of one section naturally do not coin- 

 cide with those of other sections; particularistic and in- 

 dividualistic tendencies of the true democrat are antag- 

 onistic to anything which smacks of "paternalism", 

 under which alone a persistent, farsighted policy can 

 thrive. Frequent change of administration, or at 

 least the threat of such change, impedes consistent exe- 

 cution of plans; fickle public opinion may subvert at 

 any time well laid plans which take time in maturing; 

 the true democratic doctrine of restricting State activity 

 to police functions, and the doctrine of non-interference 



