16 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



as with legislation in reference to industrial action, 

 and the general classification here attempted offers 

 simply a suggestion as to the general points of view 

 from which each case must be considered. 



With the conception of the government before 

 us, as outlined, namely, as the instrument to secure 

 the possibility of not only social life but of social 

 progress, the representative of communal interests 

 as against private interests, of the future as 

 against the present, we can get an idea as to how 

 far the providential functions of the state are to be 

 called into action. 



The policy of governmental control over water- 

 ways, roads, and lands falling under the operation 

 of eminent domain is well established in most gov- 

 ernments. The ownership and management of 

 railways has proved itself to be in the interest of 

 society in several countries. It should be extended 

 with even more reason to all exhaustible, non- 

 restorable resources. That in the interest of soci-| 

 ety and of production as well the mines should 

 belong to the state in order to prevent waste, we 

 may learn from the actual experience of France, 

 where they are state property, and only the right 

 to work them under supervision is leased to private 

 individuals. 



Of the restorable resources it is apparent that, 

 with regard to those which yield increased returns 

 to increased labor, the interests of society and of 

 the individual run on parallel lines. Where inter- 



