32 THE AMES FORESTER 



If we were to go so far as to advocate breaking up of some 

 of these great timber estates in some way, the most obvious 

 method would of course be taxation, perhaps a progressive tax, 

 somewhat after the Australian or New Zealand plan, impos- 

 ing an especially heavy burden on the very large holdings. It 

 might be argued that this would tend to encourage the division 

 of these holdings into moderate sized tracts ; or that even if it 

 did not have any decided tendency that way, it would at any 

 rate be equitable as a system of taxation, apportioning burdens 

 according to ability, since the real wealth, power, or "ability" 

 of these large holders is more tnan proportionate to the size 

 of their holdings. If furthermore, it saddled a special burden 

 upon a class of large-scale land thieves, so much the better. 



It is not the purpose of this chapter to enter into an exhaus- 

 tive discussion of the progressive tax, or of the general ques- 

 tion of remedies for our timber situation ; but it will be worth 

 while to consider briefly a few very weighty objections to any 

 scheme of breaking up the large holdings by means of a grad- 

 uated tax on timberlands. 



In the first place, aside from all questions of constitutionality 

 or conflict of jurisdictions, such a scheme may seem unfair to 

 some holders, for some who have purchased a recent years, 

 have paid full value for their land. 



In the second place, any tax graduated sufficiently to be ef- 

 fective would promote a rapid forest destruction which is ex- 

 actly what conservationists should wish to avoid. It has 

 everywhere been observed that heavy taxation of forest land 

 results in premature cutting of the timber. 



The decisive argument against the taxation scheme suggested 

 is, however, that it is not desirable to break up these large 

 holdings. The Australian and New Zealand taxes apply to ag- 

 ricultural land, and are probably justified by social considera- 

 tions. 5 It is not desirable to have agricultural lands in large 

 states; but the situation in regard to forest land is quite dif- 

 ferent. A large holding of timber land is proportionately 

 easier to protect from fire and from trespass, and is more eco- 

 nomically managed in every way. The cost of fire protection 

 is a very important item in the timber business, and for the 



B Seligman, Essays in Taxation. Eighth edition, 459-466, 516-522. 



