1282 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



education and development and upon the commerce 

 clause of the Constitution. The Federal act should pro- 

 hibit from interstate shipment any forest products cut 

 or removed in violation of State law. (Ref. Act prohib- 

 iting shipment of intoxicants from wet into dry states.) 



7. The State Forester, or other official with corre- 

 sponding authority, should be charged with the respon- 

 sibility of administering the law. He should be ap- 

 pointed to a position in the Forest Service in order to 

 exercise the authority granted to the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture. The police powers of the State should be ex- 

 tended to the necessary Federal employes. Administra- 

 tive supervision of the work should be exercised by the 

 Forest Service. 



8. The expenditure of Federal funds should be au- 

 thorized on the basis of the Federal Government paying 

 not to exceed one-half of the cost. The remaining half 



would be paid by the States either from their general 

 funds or from special funds raised by tax levies, such 

 as the timberland tax in Maine, the severance tax in 

 Louisiana, and the compulsory patrol tax in Washington 

 and Oregon. 



Any Federal funds which might be necessary for the 

 purposes of compensation described in paragraph 4 

 should be carried in a companion act having in view pri- 

 marily the acquisition of forest lands by the Federal 

 Government. 



9. In consideration of the Federal co-operation and 

 aid offered under the plan, any State which accepts it 

 will be urged to enact legislation that will relieve stand- 

 ing timber from burdensome taxes by placing a nominal 

 tax on the land and deferring the tax on the timber 

 until cut. 



A DISCUSSION OF METHODS 



BY R. S. KELLOGG 



SECRETARY, NEWS PRINT SERVICE BUREAU 



THERE is no doubt about the necessity for a na- 

 tional forest policy and that it should be speedily 

 inaugurated if we are to have anywhere near ade- 

 quate timber supplies in the not very distant future. I 

 am heartily in accord with the discussion and the inten- 

 tion to keep the matter before the public until the way 

 is paved for the beginning of the solution of the prob- 

 lem. Anything that I may say, therefore, is a criticism 

 of methods and details and not as opposition to the 

 general purposes, with which I am in sympathy. 



After giving the matter very serious consideration, I 

 am unable to approve most of the nine provisions set 

 forth in Forester Graves' statement on the principles of 

 legislation requiring the practice of forestry on private 

 lands. I don't believe that it is either practical or expe- 

 dient to compel the practice of forestry upon private 

 lands through the interstate commerce provisions of the 

 Constitution : 



First, because as shown in a matter upon which there 

 is so much public sentiment as that of child labor, the 

 attempt to accomplish desirable reforms through indirect 

 means has twice fallen down ; and 



Second, because a coercive program of this sort would 

 immediately alienate and render hostile a large propor- 

 tion of the timberland owners, thus demonstrating once 

 more the statement made a long time ago by high author- 

 ity that "forestry is practiced everywhere except in the 

 woods." 



In my judgment it is not practicable to line up all the 

 timber states in the multitude of details that program 

 of "mandatory forestry" requires. Even in the one 

 single matter of forest taxation — concerning which for- 

 esters and timberland owners have been in substantial 

 agreement — little progress has been made after years of 

 agitation. How much longer will it take to make prog- 

 ress in matters in which foresters and timberland owners 



are in opposition? As a matter of fact, we are now- 

 coming to see that the States are very loath to make lax 

 concessions to any one enterprise or form of industry, 

 and while I am in entire sympathy with the suggested 

 changes in forest taxation, I still carry in the back of 

 my head the idea that after all if forestry is a business 

 proposition it must pay dividends under business con- 

 ditions. 



Politics always plays havoc with forestry. There 

 would be no limit to the trouble that would result were 

 forestry made compulsory upon the private owner 

 through enactment and regulation by Congress and 

 forty legislatures. 



It seems to me that the time has come when the pro- 

 fessional foresters of the United States should be frank 

 enough to acknowledge what those who have had prac- 

 tical experience saw long ago, namely, that the growing 

 of large sized timber of the ordinary commercial species 

 is an operation too long in time, too hazardous in risk, 

 and too low in rate of return to attract private capital, 

 and that an attempt, national or State, to force private 

 capital by legal enactment to engage in undertakings 

 that are not profitable is doomed to failure. Forestry 

 must be economically sound or it will not succeed. 



My suggestions of constructive nature are : 



First: A timber census and land classification to de- 

 termine what we have in the way of present supplies and 

 the areas which may be properly classified as affording 

 opportunity for future and permanent supplies. 



Second: A great enlargement and extension to all 

 appropriate parts of the country of the purchase of 

 cut-over lands, for which ample precedent has been estab- 

 lished in the White Mountains and Southern Appa- 

 lachians. 



Third : Much more vigorous and general extension of 

 Federal co-operation in fire prevention along the line of 



