A NATIONAL FOREST POLICY 



1339 



obligation to make a specific positive use of it such as 

 may benefit the public at large although at individual 

 loss to himself. 



Failure to reforest cut-over lands is not to do a public injury. 

 On the contrary, private reforestation enterprises today on most 

 of the cut-over land would, on the whole, be a public loss because 

 it would involve a relative wasteful use of the nation's resources 

 of labor and capital. 



13. If the public is interested in any use of timber 

 lands or of cut-over lands different from that which the 

 enlightened self-interest of the owner may dictate, the 

 public which is the beneficiary should pay the additional 

 cost. 



A single class of private property may not be singled out to 

 sustain a burden, in behalf of the public as a whole, which is not 

 imposed upon other classes of private property. 



14. The maintenance in idleness of cut-over land is 

 declared to be wasteful. 



The larger truth would seem to be that it is wasteful to main- 

 tain cut-over land in such state of idleness as does not furnish 

 safeguard against fire and ravage which destroys the natural 

 reproduction of desirable species. 



The idleness itself is not always wasteful. In many instances 

 the expenditure of labor upon such land to return it to produc- 

 tive uses is still more wasteful because it withdraws the labor 



thus expended from other fields to which it could have been 

 more profitably devoted. 



Timber and forest economics cannot be dissociated from 

 the intricate and everchanging economic relations of all in- 

 dustry. But it would seem safe to assume that protection 

 against fire and ravage made universal and uniform among all 

 timber properties, so as to involve no unequal burden upon any 

 competitor, will be adequate to guarantee, by natural replace- 

 ment, the future of the timber supply at least till such time as 

 the permanent forest needs of the United States, and the most 

 economical way of supplying those needs, can be made more 

 apparent. 



A uniform national policy of forest protection and of public 

 acquisition of cut-over lands appropriate for permanent foresta- 

 tion should be adequate and practicable. But the duty of the 

 public should be not confused with the public obligation of pri- 

 vate industry. The specific public obligation of the lumber in- 

 dustry is to do well its task of making and selling boards. 

 Along with all others in the nation it shares in the obligation 

 to provide adequate forests for future industry. But this is an 

 obligation common to all and not exclusive upon the lumber 

 industry or upon present owners of its raw material. Being so, 

 the burden of provision for the future should be borne by the 

 public which will profit therefrom, and not by a single industry; 

 lest thereby it undermine the very industry whose future it seeks 

 to safeguard. Economic forces which rule all productive activ- 

 ities will overwhelm a forest policy set up in defiance of them. 



MANDATORY CONTROL OPPOSED 

 BY E. A. STERLING, FOREST ENGINEER 



|"T seems to me that a discussion of Col. Henry S. 

 *■ Graves' "Principles of Legislation" necessary for the 

 enforcement of a national forest policy is premature and 

 that the fundamentals of the situation should first be 

 clearly established. 



In taking this attitude I want to emphasize that the 

 desirability of a sound, national forest policy is fully 

 appreciated, and that whatever is said is in keeping with 

 the request for frank comments and with a sincere desire 

 to assist in developing the subject. The complexity of 

 the problem is also realized, and it is largely for this 

 reason that I believe- the first step should be the estab- 

 lishment of basic principles, which are sufficiently sane 

 and obvious to be generally accepted, rather than the 

 creation of arbitrary provisions based on proposed 

 legislative action, which it would be extremely difficult 

 to attain unless it was accepted and approved by all 

 concerned. 



While this is in no sense an attempt to outline the 

 fundamentals, I will attempt to summarize below a few 

 of the points which seem pertinent. 



1. It is frequently stated, without explanation or figures, that 

 private forest lands must be put under long-time management if 

 an adequate timber supply is to be assured. To carry convic- 

 tion, and show how much and why this private land is needed, 

 would it not be helpful to develop the following: 



(a). The probable lumber consumption at the end of, say 

 30 and 40 years and thereafter, based on the curve of past con- 

 sumption in relation to the normal increase in population, and 

 the replacement of wood by substitutes. 



(b). The sustained annual output from national forests, be- 

 ginning, say 30 years hence, when the supply will be much more 

 needed than now. 



(c). The prospective future output from state forest lands 

 and from the private lands being operated under definite long- 

 time management. 



(d). The forest-producing land needed in addition to the 

 above, to give an adequate sustained output. 



The object of working out the points under No. 1 and 

 its subheadings would be to ascertain as definitely as 

 possible the amount of forest-producing private land 

 needed to supplement the ultimate supply from sources 

 now assured. It is a major premise in any proposition 

 to know what is to be accomplished. Having estab- 

 lished this, the next step is to find means for its consum- 

 mation, which it would seem could be worked out pro- 

 gressively as follows : 



A. The acquirement by states, as far as they can be per- 

 suaded to do so by publicity and legislation, of the cut-over and 

 otherwise unproductive lands, which can be acquired at a rea- 

 sonable price and reforested with promise of success. 



B. The much more limited possibilities in the encouragement 

 of municipal forests by acquirement, reforestation and otherwise. 



C. The encouragement of private, long-time forest practice 

 by reasonable tax legislation and co-operative fire protection, 

 wherever feasible. This development has been very slow in the 

 past because of the economic factors which prevent the profit- 

 able use of capital in such enterprises, but it is reasonable to 

 expect that market and general economic conditions in this re- 

 gard will change materially in the next 30 years, and that long- 

 lived corporations, and particularly wood-consuming organiza- 

 tions, will take steps to grow successive forest crops to exactly 

 the extent that it can be made profitable. 



D. A continuation and extension of the federal purchase of 

 forest lands, both forested and cut-over, and their inclusion 

 under an established technical and administrative policy. 



It is my personal opinion that under the existing 

 political and economic situation a policy aimed at the 



