CHAPTER XIV 



The Government Leads 



National and state owned forests in the United 

 States ; why this policy should be extended ; the 

 government and forest education. 



Leadership in all matters so closely affecting the 

 welfare of every citizen must naturally devolve upon 

 some centralized authority, and indeed, as regards 

 the maintenance of adequate supplies of forest 

 products, many people feel that federal or state 

 action offers the sole remedy: first, because the 

 government, being a continuing entity, can alone 

 afford to hold land long enough to await the second 

 growth timber crop; and secondly, because lands 

 thus held may be protected from fire without en- 

 countering the much mooted question of conflicting 

 authority. At the very least our National Forests 

 should be of sufficient size to prove a real factor In 

 the future wood supply, and widely enough extended 

 to establish for each district the most effective 

 methods of promoting forest growth. Neverthe- 



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