good business arrangement whereby the man with the hem- 

 lock is enabled to ship his logs by rail and the railroad makes 

 some money out of his shipments, although not so much as 

 out of the pine. I think our Tax Commission has a problem 

 to solve of this kind ; after having ascertained that two differ- 

 ent roads may have cost approximately the same sum, they 

 find that one is earning a handsome dividend, the other one 

 not enough to pay running expenses and taxes, and I under- 

 stand we have one of our most eminent professors at work 

 upon the problem of intangible values to be added to the 

 physical values in order to even up this very principle that 

 profitable properties can and ought to pay more taxes than 

 unprofitable ones. 



"Forestry fortunately complies with all three of the above 

 conditions, for the following reasons : 



"i. It is a public benefit. If we preserve the fertility and 

 productiveness of our State ; if we continue the resort grounds 

 for our congested cities and southern friends ; if we would 

 exemplify our State motto, 'If thou seekest a beautiful 

 peninsula, behold it here,' then we must preserve proper 

 forest areas. 



"2. It is desirable that the State should secure and exercise 

 more and more a controlling interest in our forests ; and, 



"3. Forests are not a source of revenue to their owners until 

 they are cut and converted into lumber and other products. 



"For these reasons I claim that our forests should be sub- 

 ject to special forms of taxation. I would advocate a separa- 



tion of stumpage values from the value of the lands upon 

 which they stand. This has often been done by the lumber- 

 men taking timber deeds only, but as the law does not recog- 

 nize such a division, the value of the timber is always included 

 with the land in assessments and taxes. 



"By such a division the land itself could be assessed and 

 taxed, the title might be retained by the timber holder or not, 

 or the land might revert to the State through failure of taxes 

 being paid or by deeds from the lumbermen. The timber itself 

 I would have exempt from all taxation as long as it is left 

 standing. I would give every forest tree in Michigan from 

 the smallest shoot to the venerable pine of three centuries 

 the right to stand and live and grow free of all taxes in return 

 for the benefits it would confer. If any controversy should 

 arise between the land owners and timber owners, then I 

 would give the timber the preference and the right of occu- 

 pancy, and the land should be dedicated to forestry tempo- 

 rarily or permanently temporarily, if the land was owned by 

 private individuals, of good agricultural quality and wanted 

 for cultivation after the timber was cut; permanently, if the 

 title was in the State and the land was adapted to forestry 

 rather than agriculture, or was required to make up a proper 

 proportion of forest areas. 



"As to the final tax upon timber, I would place the entire 

 amount upon it at the time of cutting, and which for further 

 convenience I will call 'the cutting tax.' I do not feel com- 

 petent to say what this cutting tax should be, but it ought to 



