PART 1. INTRODUCTION 
CONTENTS 
Page Page 
Origin and organization of this study__-.-.--- 3 | Initial assumptions regarding the nature of 
Rise of the forest-tax problem____-------- 3 the forest-tax problem—Continued. 
The Senate Committee on Reforestation. 4 Effect of taxation upon the management 
The Clarke-McNary law-_-.-------------- 5 of privately owned forests___._-------- 
The Forest Taxation Inquiry__-.-------- 5 Mhelideall taxisystemeene sass see eee ne 
Initial assumptions regarding the nature of Forest taxation in the ideal tax system__. 9 
the forest-tax problem-____-_--.-.---------- Gulp Scopeolistudy 2 see eee Seas 10 
Private ownership of forests and the Plan and Teena OL SEU Yee MN 12 
publichinterest2s-- 2-2. scence encase 6 ' Acknowledgments.._-.....-......--.-.---.-. 15 
ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION OF THIS STUDY 
RISE OF THE FOREST-TAX PROBLEM 
Dissatisfaction with the American property tax as applied to forests 
has had expression for more than a generation, during which period 
the volume and vigor of complaint has steadily grown. This is no, 
to imply that the owners of forest property are unique in their attitud® 
toward taxation and that all other taxpayers welcome the tax gathere® 
with open arms or even accept his exactions with silent resignation" 
Quite the contrary. Taxation has never in the history of the world: 
been pleasant, and taxpayers have ever been notoriously vocal in 
expression of the pain with which they part with money for support 
of government. Yet in spite of all this there does appear to be some- 
thing peculiar about the complaint against the taxation of forest 
property. In particular it appears to have been generally accepted 
by those who have given attention to the subject that the problem of 
forest taxation is not merely a question of the amount of taxes levied 
upon the forests but extends to the method of taxation, and that 
complaints against taxation represent not merely the natural resist- 
ance to a heavy tax burden but the conviction that taxation has 
power to affect the business of forest growing and the future of the 
forests in a peculiarly unfavorable manner. Efforts to induce forest 
owners to protect and care for their forests, to prevent destructive 
exploitation of virgin forests, and to encourage the reforestation of 
cut-over lands have always, sooner or later, encountered difficulties 
in connection with taxation. It has been urged that heavy taxation 
tends to force premature cutting and to make conservative logging 
unprofitable and, above all, that uncertainty as to future tax exac- 
tions stands as an insuperable obstacle to the investment of capital 
in forest growing. In short, it appears that there is a real problem 
of forest taxation. 
The professional foresters of the United States awoke early to the 
theoretical significance of taxation as a possible obstacle to conserva- 
tion, and in the years before 1909 some literature had appeared on the 
3 
