Conservation Commission 43 



and distribute the energy produced thereby direct to the people 

 at the cost of production and transmission. 



So far the recommendations of our Commission have not been 

 adopted for the reason that it has been impossible to reconcile con- 

 flicting interests. Many people believe that the policy of the 

 development of the water powers of the State " under State 

 ownership, control and maintenance," foreshadowed by the Legis- 

 lature in 1907, is not sound; but that the development and 

 exploitation of our water power resources should be left to private 

 initiative. Whether the sorely needed development of our water 

 power shall proceed under public or private auspices is a question 

 so vital to the welfare of the State that it deserves your most 

 earnest and thoughtful attention. 



Utilization of Forests 



Wise men in their day and generation, prudent and foreseeing, 

 were the framers of the Constitution of 1894, when they excluded 

 from the Forest Preserve — forever, as they then believed — the 

 axe and the saw and decreed that it be " kept as wild lands." In 

 the face of what had notoriously happened, and judging the future 

 by the only test, the light of experience, there was nothing else for 

 them to do but what they did. The money-changers were to be 

 driven from the temple ; conscienceless exploitation of the forests 

 was to be checked. All this was timely and provident. 



The time has come, however, when modifications of this drastic 

 policy may safely be considered. We now know — the scientific 

 forester of our time tells us — what was not appreciated twenty 

 years ago, that selective cutting and removal of ripe timber is 

 beneficial to the forests, apart from lessening the fire danger. 



With a timber cut in this State five times the annual growth, 

 and consumption sixteen times the growth, the State of New York 

 ought to consider, seriously, a plan of classifying the Forest 

 Preserve by areas, part to be protective and part to be productive. 

 By confining cutting to selected trees under State supervision, 

 and conducting all sales thereof by competitive bidding, such 

 forest utilization would yield a direct revenue to the State treas- 

 ury of $1,000,000 per annum. The fixed carrying charges on the 

 Forest Preserve are $365,000 per annum, of which $200,000 is 



