INTRODUCTORY. 



15 



large, this class of resources must become an ob- 

 ject of public economy by the state or community. 



Often it will be a difficult task in practice to 

 assign a particular resource to a proper position 

 with regard to its bearing upon social interests, but 

 conservatism, which is the logical poHcy of society, 

 will lead us in cases of doubt to lean toward the 

 presumption that the interests of society are more 

 likely to suffer than those of the individual; and 

 a mistake in curtailing private interests will be 

 more easily corrected than a mistake in not hav- 

 ing in time guarded social interests. Thus it has 

 been urged against the selection of forest areas 

 as state reserves for the purpose of protecting 

 watersheds, that it would be difficult to decide 

 which areas are necessarily comprised in such 

 selection, without withdrawing those of simply 

 commercial value. That the widest construction 

 of the idea of protective forests will be safer than 

 the opposite, and should be the one adopted by 

 the government, seems quite reasonable. 



To properly appreciate the position in any 

 given case, we will have to weigh the present and 

 future significance of the resource, the likelihood 

 of its permanence, and the likelihood of its fate 

 under private treatment, whence the necessity of 

 bringing it under sovereign control of the state 

 and the quality of the control will appear. 



That each individual case will require its own 

 consideration and adjudication holds there as well 



