A CIRCULAR just issued by the federal forest service 

 calls attention to the various laws under which more 

 than a third of all national forest receipts go to the 

 benefit of the states in which the forests are situated, for 

 schools and roads. In 1912 the amount of money thus made 

 available for state purposes totaled about $750,000. The re- 

 port does not show the amounts due from the receipts of the 

 fiscal year which closed June 30, 1913. Including these, the 

 states' share of national forest funds since the laws were 

 passed has aggregated over $3,000,000. 



These facts are set forth, according to the forest service, 

 because a popular impression still exists that all money re- 

 ceived by the government from timber sales, grazing fees, 

 water-power permits, etc., is permanently taken out of the 

 states where it is paid and goes into the national treasury to 

 meet the general expenses of the government. This idea is 

 said to prevail, to some extent, even among actual forest users 

 in the national forest states, where the division of receipts 

 with the states has been going on for years. 



The circular states that part of the gross receipts of the 

 national forests was first made available for schools and 

 roads when the agricultural appropriation act of June 30, 1906, 

 directed the secretary of the treasury to pay over to the state 

 or territory in which any forest reserve was situated ten per 

 cent of all money received during the fiscal year from such 

 reserve. The money was to be expended by the state or 

 territorial legislature for the benefit of public schools .and 

 roads in the counties in which the forest reserve lay. This 

 legislation was recommended by the forest service because 

 of the recognized burden imposed locally where national for- 

 ests operate to prevent much land from becoming taxable. 



In 1908 the amount to be paid to the states was increased 

 to 25 per cent, and a proviso of the earlier act that no more 

 should be paid to a county than 40 per cent of its total income 



30 



