APPENDIX 



TAX REFORM TO PERMIT REFORESTATION 



Loss in Idle Land 



It is of the very highest importance to have that part of our 

 constantly increasing area of cut and burned over forest land which 

 is not more valuable for agriculture "put to its only useful purpose 

 the growing of another forest crop. If this is done it will continue 

 to be a source of tax revenue, to employ labor and support industry, 

 to supply our forest needs, to bring revenue into the state, and to 

 protect our streams. Otherwise it will become a desert, non-taxable, 

 non-productive, a fire menace, and in every way worse than a dead 

 loss to the state in which it exists and to the country at large. In 

 the one way it will be of use to every citizen, whatever his occupa- 

 tion; in the other it will be a burden upon every citizen. 



The realness and directness of this problem in the Pacific North- 

 west is seldom realized. Our deforested areas are great and growing, 

 but of even more peculiar significance is our unparalleled opportunity 

 for making them quickly profitable to the community. Forest growth 

 is more rapid and certain than elsewhere. A heavy crop may be had 

 again in from 40 to 60 years. It will hardly be of the quality of 

 that now being cut, but considering the shortage then to prevail 

 should bring fully as much wealth into the state from its manufacture, 

 the majority to be circuh.led as payment for supplies and labor. 

 Since, therefore, our denuded land should in 60 years or less bring in 

 again as much as it has already, its idleness costs us each year a 

 sixtieth or more of that immense sum, amounting to a great many 

 millions of dollars annually. To this loss is added the loss of tax 

 revenue which the new crop would yield, with countless indirect 

 injuries. 



The Owner's Compulsory Attitude 



For this situation our system of taxation is chiefly responsible. 

 The owner may or may not hold the land for a time under the present 

 system, in the hope of selling it or of tax reform, but he will seldom 

 if ever take any steps to insure reforesting, because to do so is too 



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