METHODS OF FOREST POLICY 233 



preferable to government action and authority, 

 which must often be arbitrary, indirect, uneconom- 

 ical, and ineffective. Hence, as far as forest areas 

 serve only the one object of furnishing supplies, 

 and form the basis of industrial activity, we may, 

 for a time at least, allow our general modern in- 

 dustrial policy of non-interference to prevaO, which 

 is based upon the theory, only partially true, that 

 self-interest will secure the best use of the means 

 of production. 



There is, however, one great generic difference 

 between the forestry business and all other produc- 

 tive industries, which places it after all on a dif- 

 erent footing as far as state interest is concerned ; 

 it is the time element, which we have again and 

 again accentuated, and which brings with it conse- 

 quences not experienced in any other business. 



The result of private activity which is supposed 

 to come from self-interest is closely connected with 

 the working of the well-known economic law of 

 supply and demand which regulates the effort of the 

 producer. This law and the self-interest can be 

 trusted to bring about in most cases a proper balance 

 rapidly, but in the forestry business this balance 

 works sluggishly; before a shortage in supplies 

 is discovered and appreciated, stimulating to pro- 

 ductive effort, years will have elapsed, years which 

 are needed to prepare for a supply to become avail- 

 able in a distant future. How difficult it is to get 

 conditions of forest supplies recognized and appre- 



