Miscellaneous. 



[April, 1909. 



of the soil, and improvement of navi- 

 gable rivers are all promoted by such 

 a policy of forest conservation. 



The opinion of the Maine Supreme 

 bench sets forth unequivocally the prin- 

 ciple that the property rights of the 

 individual are subordinate to the rights 

 of the community, and especially that 

 the waste of wild timber land derived 

 originally from the State, involving as 

 it would the impoverishment of the 

 State and its people and thereby defeat- 

 ing one great purpose of Government, 

 may properly be prevented by State 

 restrictions. 



The Court says that there are two 

 reasons why the right of the public to 

 control and limit the use of private 

 property is peculiarly applicable to 

 property in laud : ' ' First, such property 

 is not the result of productive labour, 

 but is derived solely from the State 

 itself, the original owner ; second, the 

 amount of land being incapable of 

 increase, if the owners of large tracts 

 can waste them at will without State 

 restriction, that State and its people 

 may be helplessly impoverished and one 

 great purpose of government defeated. 

 .. . , We do not think the proposed legis- 

 lation would operate to " take" private 

 property within the inhibition of the 

 Constitution. While it might restrict 

 the owner of wild and uncultivated 

 lands in his use of them, might delay 

 his taking some of the product, might 

 delay his anticipated profits and even 

 thereby might cause him some loss of 

 profit, it would nevertheless leave him 

 his lauds, their product and increase, 

 untouched, and without diminution of 

 title, estate or quantity. He would 

 still have large measure of control and 

 large opportunity to realize values. He 

 might suffer delay but not deprivation. 

 . . . The proposed legislation. . .would 

 be within the legislative power and 

 would not operate as a taking of private 

 property for which compensation must 

 be made." 



The Court of Errors and Appeals of 

 New Jersey has adopted a similar view, 

 which has recently been sustained by 

 the Supreme Court of the United States. 

 In delivering the opinion of the Court on 

 April 0, 1908, Mr. Justice Holmes said : 

 -'The State, as quasi-sovereign and repre- 

 sentative of the interests of the public, 

 has a standing in Court to protect the 



atmosphere, the water, and the forests 

 within its territory, irrespective of the 

 assent or dissent of the private owners 

 of the land most immediately concerned. 

 .... It appears to us that few public 

 interests are more obvious, indisputable 

 and independent of particular theory 

 than the interest of the public of a State 

 to maintain the rivers that are wholly 

 within it substantially undiminished, 

 except by such drafts upon them as the 

 guardian of the public welfare may per- 

 mit for the purpose of turning them to a 

 more perfect use, (Applause.) This 

 public interest is omnipresent wherever 

 there is a State, and grows more pressing 



as population grows We are of 



opinion, further, that the constitutional 

 power of the State to insist that its 

 natural advantages shall remain un- 

 impaired by its citizens is not dependent 

 upon any nice estimate of the extent of 

 present use or speculation as to future 

 needs. The legal conception of the 

 necessary is apt to be confined to some- 

 what rudimentary wants, and there are 

 benefits from a great river that might 

 escape a lawyer's view. (Laughter and 

 applause.) But the State is not required 

 to submit even to an aesthetic anaylsis. 

 Any analysis may be inadequate. It 

 finds itself in possession of what all 

 admit to be a great public good, and 

 what it has it may keep and give no one 

 a reason for its will." 



These decisions reach the root of the 

 idea of conservation of our resources in 

 the interests of the people. 



Finally, let us remember that the con- 

 servation of our natural resources, 

 though the gravest problem of to-day, 

 is yet but a part of another and greater 

 problem to which this Nation is not yet 

 awake, but to which it will awake in 

 time, and with which it must hereafter 

 grapple if it is to live— the problem of 

 national efficiency, the patriotic duty of 

 insuring the safety and continuance 

 of the Nation. (Applause.) When the 

 people of the United States consciously 

 undertake to raise themselves as citizens, 

 and the Nation and the States in their 

 several spheres, to the highest pitch of 

 excellence in private, state, and national 

 life, and to do this because it is 

 first of all t he duties of true patriotism, 

 then and not till then the future of this 

 Nation, in quality and in time, will be 

 assured. (Great applause,) 



