Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1913-01-08
OF
FOREST SERVICE
FOR YEAR GIVEN
Interesting Figures on the
Incomes From National
Forests and the Amounts
Spent in Administration.
Rx j. A. Matthew'S.

| Washington, Jan. S.--The appropria-
ton for the forest service for the last
4 fiscal year was SIS, 0,219.56 which was
expended for administration and pro-
| lection, permanent improvements and
cooperative and investigative work.
| OF this sum s4,71S,66S.96 was expend-
ed for administration and protection of
1 the national forests, S499, 1850 for per-
manent improvements on the national
/ forests and S312,392.05 for cooperative
and investigative work. There was
| also a miscellaneous expenditure which
amounted to s707,045.56. This included
the examination of lands under the
Weeks law, national Bison range, Mon
tana, payments to states, cooperative
fire protection under the Weeks law
and reimbursements.
The amounts which will be paid to
states for roads and schools from the
national forest receipts for the year
| 1912 is as follows Arizona, S61,61442;
Arkansas, s570SS1. California, s62,-
052.s2; Colorado, 53,759.07; Florida,
$245493. Idaho, s59,523.79; Kansas,
$1224.64; Michigan, 1913; Minnesota.
s125S1a. Montana, $50 S16.37. Nebras
ka, s4075s9; Nevada, s15,0S6.07; New
Mexico, s29,625.32, North Dakota,
/ s7o.96; Oklahoma, ss7S.45; Oregon.
/ $42.55 So; South Dakota. SO, $500;
Utah, s33.76o.42; Washington, Sal
1921: wyoming, s3063722.
The total amount paid to the states
for the last fiscal year was s5o6,572.94
/ This amount IS an increase of s24,1a6.76
over the amount paid out for 1911. The
aggregate sum of such payments to
date is approximately s2.850.0o0.
Better Than Taxes.
1.-THE share of the receipts which is
being paid to the states from some of
the forests is greater than the taxes
which the lands would yield says the
report If they were entirely in pri
vate ownership. On the less developed
forests the volume Of use Is still too
low to make the returns to the states
important. such forests would, however,
yield little in taxes at the present time
if they had never been set aside for
national forest purposes
During the past year a classification
was made of all expenditures of the
i service from the year 1900 to 1910. in
elusive line-by-line analysis of
some les 900 vouchers in preparation
of the statement was made necessary.
Towering the disbursement Of over
SIG. o00,0 600 for that period. One result
was to show that the net cost of the
national forests TO the government for
the six years 1905 to 1910. inclusive,
counting in all overhead charges, but
deducting the value of all property and
Improvements on hand. was less than
100000 per year. Against this net
cost, as was pointed out in the report
made to congress embodying the re-
suits of the classification. must be set
the public service rendered by pro-
! lection and regulated use Of the ma
tional forests, which at a very moder-
ate estimate have direct property
value exceeding $1,000, 100000 Even
under the exceptionally trying condi-
tons of $780, the report of the fores-
ter says, in which the difficulty of
fire control. the extent of the fires. and
the loss caused by fires was far greater
than in any other year, over rs per cent
of all fires discovered were put out by
the forest officers without extra help
or expense"
The stock industry has benefited by
regulated grazing to an extent far ex-
lceeding the entire net cost of caring
for the forests. The yearly value Of
water protection Is probably greater
than the entire annual appropriation
for its support. And even the timber
on the forests is advancing in value at
the rate of not less than $50,000,00O a
year.
Charges Arc Disproved.
} Statements to the effect that the
service has spent most of the money
appropriated for 1t for purposes other
: than the care of the national forests;
that It has maintained an extravagant-
: ly large force Of office employees instead
of doing field work; that its expendi-
lures for travel, etc. have been excess
! sive: that 1t has subsidized newspapers.
magazines, or magazine and newspaper