986 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Forest Service has built up both the condition of the 

 range and the number of stock grazed, and at the same 

 time has completely won over both sheep and cattle men 

 to a whole-hearted support of the principle of national 

 retention of these grazing rights. Throughout the length 

 and breadth of the west there remains hardly a vestige 

 of opposition to the grazing policy save on the part of a 

 few who are not getting what they think they might 

 secure under a return to the old policy of the right of 

 the strongest, backed by the rifle, which formerly char- 

 acterized the struggle for the public range. 



These are facts which cannot be denied. So powerful 

 has public opinion become in support of these national 

 policies that big interests working through state and na- 

 tional politics to restore the good old days of free land 

 grabs have again and again been driven to cover. The 

 disruption of the national forests, desired as the surest 

 method of exterminating the all too successful propaganda 

 for retention of national resources has been widely advo- 

 cated. Recently efforts have been made to show that 

 the western states were staggering under unjust burdens 

 of taxation as a result of the "retention" by the govern- 

 ment of percentages of their area varying from 40 to 92 

 per cent of the total. (American Forestry, page 820.) 

 The author of these figures neglects to state what portion 

 of these lands are purposely retained, and what percent- 

 age are now open for occupancy, thus permitting the 

 public to believe that all such lands are forcibly held by 

 the U. S. It must be made clear that not one acre of 

 rational forest lands more valuable for agriculture than 

 for timber will be retained under present policies any 

 longer than it takes to have it examined and thrown out, 

 barring only the ranger stations and lands for similar 

 public uses, and that the examination and elimination of 

 all agricultural lands is being rapidly completed. Na- 

 tional forests contain the only large bodies of land, exclu- 

 sive of national parks, which the government intends to 

 keep forever.* Indian reservations will probably in time 

 be broken up, and allotted individually, pursuant to the 

 declared policy of the Indian Office. The area of national 

 forests amounts, not to 92 per cent, but to an average of 

 not over 15 per cent of the total area of western States, 

 the largest percentage being 33 per cent practically 

 all of which is worthless except for the timber it 

 contains or for its capacity for timber production, 

 grazing, or watershed protection. Mineral lands may 

 be taken up and title obtained under the mining laws.* 

 To those who would plead the necessity for local 

 taxation as a reason for the breaking down of this 

 national ownership of timber lands, the answer is clear. 

 The only method of taxation which is considered per- 

 fectly just in the long run is a tax on income. Timber 

 should in the future pay such a tax in lieu of annual 

 taxes. But a tax of 20 per cent on net income is con- 

 sidered a fairly reasonal)le sum. The national govern- 

 ment under existing laws pays to the counties within 

 which national forests are located a tax of 35 per cent 

 of the gross income, whether or not there is any net 



income whatever from the management of said forests. 

 No private owner could afford such a tax, and annual 

 taxes placed on such timber which would yield equal reve- 

 nue would be confiscatory. Furthermore, this income 

 will be perpetual, since the forests will be retained as 

 productive areas, while under private management in 

 many instances their productivity would be greatly 

 impaired. 



Had the principle of national retention of public re- 

 sources in the west been wrong and the results detri- 

 mental, the entire system would long ago have been 

 demolished by its enemies. It has stood and grown on 

 its own merits until it is so firmly intrenched in public 

 favor that the opponents of the national forest policy % 

 have been forced to fall back on state sovereignty as \r 

 their last argument. And here they have no grounds to ^ 

 stand on, for the western states as such have received as 

 much, if not more, land from the nation than those lo- 

 cated elseivhere, and the U. S. Supreme Court as early 

 as 1839 in Illinois, announced the absolute right of the 

 national government to retain title and to lease such lands 

 and resources as it chose, within the confines of a sover- 

 eign state. 



The fight on the waterpower question is merely another 

 phase of the struggle of the new and successful principle 

 of national retention and leases as a means of developing 

 public resources against the older and questionable plan 

 of relinquishment of these properties to private owner- 

 ship. There is but one answer to this question ; the 

 nation must retain the ownership of the waterpowers on 

 public lands, and lease them on terms which will secure 

 the greatest degree of utilization and benefit both to the 

 ir.vestor and to the consumer. 



MARYLAND'S WOOD USING INDUSTRIES 



THE State of Maryland probably has a total of 500 

 industries which rely to a large extent upon wood 

 for the manufacture of their products. Thirty- 

 five per cent of these are centered in the city of Balti- 

 more, the rest distributed over the State, but particularly 

 numerous in the middle western part, and certain sec- 

 tions of the Eastern Shore. 



The study of those in Western Maryland is completed, 

 and in Baltimore it is well under way. The investigation 

 has disclosed some interesting facts, and upon the basis 

 of the data secured it is the intention of the State For- 

 ester to establish a State Wood Waste Exchange. It is 

 of course not difficult to find manufacturers who have 

 waste to sell ; it is not as simple a matter to locate ad- 

 vantageous markets for them. However, it is believed 

 that this part of the work will meet with reasonable suc- 

 cess, and the manufacturers themselves are evidencing 

 much interest in the present investigation. There exists 

 among most of them a decided willingness to add to the 

 efficiency of their plants through a better and a closer 

 utilization of raw materials, and if hearty cooperation 

 makes for the success of such work, that in Maryland 

 should be productive of results. 



*An exception must be made to these statements in the case of extensive areas of coal lands, the future policy for which has 

 not yet been determined. 



