FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 625 
in other parts of the country where some degree of disorganization 
would be feasible. 
One of the major costs of local government is the support of schools; 
the more sparse the population the greater the weight of this item. 
The American people have assumed that a corollary of compulsory 
education is a schoolhouse within reach of every child. This idea 
should be exploded. If a family deliberately moves into the wilderness, 
the State should be under no obligation to follow with a school. 
Sparsely populated areas should have an unorganized status, and 
parents moving into these areas should understand that in so doing 
they forfeit the benefits of free public schools which their children can 
attend while living at home. The matter could be handled as in 
Maine, where the State pays the tuition and board (less $1 per week) 
of the children of isolated homes in unorganized territory, who are 
sent to school elsewhere. When financed on this basis, the cost of 
education is less than where schools are maintained in remote places 
for a handful of children. 
Usually the second heaviest item in the cost of local government in 
sparsely settled areas is the expenditure for highways. If the area were 
unorganized, settlers would recognize that they could not demand a 
highway leading to every cabin. Except those which the State pro- 
vided, all roads and trails would have to be provided by the settlers 
themselves through their own efforts or through voluntary coop- 
eration. 
With no roads and no schoolhouses, or other public buildings to 
construct, the creation of debt would be avoided and the item of debt 
service, which figures heavily in most local budgets, would be nonexist- 
ent. The absence of these major expenses, together with the elimi- 
nation of the cost of elections, the salaries of local officials, and the 
upkeep of public buildings, would reduce taxes to a very nominal rate. 
Access to the courts, in case life or property were threatened, relief in 
case of poverty, and other inalienable rights of a citizen should of 
course be provided by the State directly or through the agencies of an 
adjacent organized jurisdiction. For these services the people in 
unorganized territory should pay their full part. The unorganized 
territory should be fully self-supporting. In Maine, despite a tax rate 
about one-third of that in organized territory, the unorganized 
territory is more than self-supporting. 
CONTROL OF FURTHER LAND SETTLEMENT 
Unfortunately many areas which are predominantly forest or cut 
over have a sprinkling of agricultural settlement. In many cases 
the agricultural development has proved unprofitable and is in a 
state of decline. Yet the survival of a few families, reluctant to 
surrender their waning equities, necessitates the perpetuation of 
schools and other governmental services. A diminishing tax base 
necessitates a heavier and heavier tax burden on both farm and 
forest property. Eventually the farms may all be forced into bank- 
ruptcy, but the process may require 20 or 30 years. If a few owners 
succeed in selling their holdings to innocent buyers with fresh capital 
the process may take even longer. In the meantime an increasing 
number of both farm and forest properties will be surrendered through 
101285°—35———40 
