280 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



The government, in its forest reserve policy, is aiming at long-time 

 results. 



It is commonly assumed in these complaints about the loss of taxing 

 power, that if the national forests were turned over to private owner- 

 ship, and sawmills were built to saw up the timber, the only effect on 

 the financial balance sheet of the commiinity would be an increase in 

 tax revenues. No attention has usually been given to the fact that 

 these mills would need a large number of employees, and that, with 

 an increase in population, would come an increased expense for 

 enforcing justice, providing schools, etc. These expenses might not 

 increase in the same proportion as the revenues, but they would 

 certainly increase somewhat. 



As a matter of general reasoning, it seems probable that conserva- 

 tion does not involve any general sacrifice for the present or for future 

 generations, even in the West. It is true that it may result in a slower 

 rise in rents and land values, and may at first involve all the disad- 

 vantages that arise from sparseness of population, but in some regions 

 it has not retarded the growth of population, and even where it has, 

 it must be remembered that sparseness of population has its own 

 advantages. Perhaps the average standard of comfort in the West is 

 just as high as it would be if there had never been any national for- 

 ests ; and if it is true that the reservation policy means a wiser and 

 more economical use of resources, the standard of comfort in the long 

 run will be higher than would otherwise have been possible.^^ 



Of course any policy that hinders rapid growth and expansion 

 would seem most iniquitous to many people of the West, because 

 western people are characteristically "boosters" of the most enthusi- 

 astic type, keenly intent upon "growing" as rapidly as possible, and 

 sometimes careless as to whether their development is along safe and 

 sane lines or not. 



It is not the policy of the Forest Service to shut the people out of 

 the national forests. The general policy is to put to its most produc- 

 tive use every foot of land in the forests. Those areas most valuable 

 for agriculture are to be used for that purpose ; those most valuable 

 for mining should go to the miner; those most valuable as water 



38 See an able article by Professor W. I. King, in the Quarterly Journal of 

 Economics, May, 1916, 595. 



