1 64 North American Forests and Forestry 



and that private enterprise could not be relied upon 

 to maintain such forests, then the policy of public 

 forest maintenance might well be resorted to, not- 

 withstanding the objections mentioned above. 



I dare say that none but the extreme followers 

 of Adam Smith would deny that government ought 

 to shape its measures so as to prevent, if possible, 

 the decay of so important a series of industries as 

 those depending upon forests for their raw material. 

 The majority of the American people, which favor 

 a system of protective tariff, will not object to a 

 reasonable internal policy of protection to so vital 

 a source of national wealth as the forests, and if 

 the people become convinced that nothing but gov- 

 ernment management can assure the permanency 

 of forests, the bugaboo of " paternalism " or " so- 

 cialism " will not terrify them. 



Now, I am very far from arguing that it has 

 been demonstrated that, taking the country as a 

 whole, private forest management cannot be made 

 a business success. I believe that even under pres- 

 ent conditions it can, in many cases, be made to 

 pay, and that as soon as by proper legislation the 

 problems of fire protection and taxation, which will 

 be discussed in the next chapter, have been solved, 

 it will pay well in all localities whtere it is proper 

 that forests should grow. But even if this is true, 

 as the future will undoubtedly show, it will be wise 

 to have by the side of private forest enterprises a 

 system of public forests, managed according to the 

 most approved business principles. 



