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secure. Furthermore, there still is much doubt in the minds of practical men as to the best material to be used in the construction of highways. These facts, together with the opposition to high taxes, make it imperative to proceed on a more conservative basis.

The project presents an engineering feature which should be supplied by the state. There must be uniformity in the plan of building roads. Furthermore, state aided work should be carried on in accordance with the requirements of the state. This, however, does not make it necessary that the state should carry out the work of actual construction. It is generally conceded that county authorities being familiar with local labor conditions, are able to produce greater results for the money expended.

The condition of many state roads that but recently have been built proves conclusively that it is necessary to make better provision for their maintenance. It will be a waste of money to go on with these great expenditures for highways unless suitable arrangements are made to keep them in repair.

State Forestry

There is

In 1903 the legislature created the department of forestry, and began the project of reforesting cutover timber lands in the northern part of the state. annually appropriated $35,000 to pay the salaries and carry out the provisions of the act. The legislature of 1911 made an appropriation of $250,000, distributed over a period of five years, for the purchase of additional lands, and the law further provides for an annual appropriation of $10,000 which can be expended by the state land commissioners for the purchase of lands that have reverted to counties for taxes and for other lands. This appropriation has been used each year since it was authorized. The total appropriation available to the forestry department is $95,000 per annum.

The state set aside all swamp lands that were left north of town 33 and the department has the use of the

income from these lands derived from the sale of dead and down timber, from trespass and from sales of scattering and agricultural lands that are not suitable for forest reserve. The state forester reports that the income from this latter source has been large, the total being $435,476.13. Of this amount $381,706.88 has been exexpended or reinvested. He reports the following investments in lands:

Appropriations for lands expended

Income from swamp lands reinvested in other lands

Total

Amount due on lands remaining unpaid (because of question pending before supreme court)

$146,027.48

272,781.22

$418,808.70

$130.817.35

There has been expended for improvements $121,522.60, making a total investment for the state of $671,148.65 since the organization of the department, exclusive of the cost of supervision and planting.

The state forester reports that approximately 1,000 acres of land have been replanted and that the average cost is $4.98 per acre, and that the output of the state's forest nurseries will be sufficient to plant about 1,000 acres per year, the cost of which will approximate $5 per acre. The validity of certain purchases of land for this department, and the question as to whether the state has the authority to place any of the school fund lands including lands set aside for school purposes out of the swamp land grant, university fund lands or agricultural college lands in the state forest reserve, and the further question whether the using of revenue raised by present taxation to promote production or improvement for the benefit of future generations is using money for a public purpose within the meaning of the constitution, are now pending before the supreme court. Wheth

er the state can proceed with the project of reforesttation as now planned will depend upon the judgment of the court. Even though there were no legal obstructions I believe it to be a questionable project.

It can be urged to be a moral obligation to future generations to replace this valuable natural resource with which our state was so abundantly supplied. However, it seems perfectly clear that that obligation rests upon the national government. The virgin forests of our state provided a timber supply for a large part of the country. It would have been morally wrong to attempt to confine its use to our own state. For the same reason it would be morally wrong to attempt to confine the use of the timber supply of the future to the people living within the state. Inasmuch as the product must always be available for all the people it is clearly the duty of the United States government to provide for the future supply. I believe it would be manifestly unfair to tax so small a political unit as the state of Wisconsin for the purpose of producing a resource that will in the end be for the benefit of the people at large.

As a business proposition it should not appeal to us. We have had sufficient experience to convince us that the annual cost is large and that the investment which has already reached a large sum will continue to grow rapidly in sums that will burden the taxpayers. There is a diversity of opinion among experts and practical men as to the time required to produce a tree that can be converted into merchantable timber. The estimates run from fifty to 100 years. It should not require much argument to convince anyone that a business proposition which cannot possibly pay any returns for a period of from fifty to 100 years is not attractive, and is, as a matter of fact, an unwise investment. Furthermore, the property is subject to destruction by fire or storm; therefore it is not exempt from the ordinary business risk.

The project is open to the further objection that it removes so large an acreage from the tax roll of sparsely settled counties in the northern part of our state as to make local taxation burdensome to the remaining property. It is open to the further objection that any large and contiguous tract of land in Wisconsin must necessarily contain a considerable amount of land that is suitable for agriculture. The time is coming, and judging by agricultural development for the past fifty years it

is not far away, when every acre that will produce a crop will be demanded by the people. Everywhere in the country the forest tree has been obliged to yield before advancing civilization, and the northern part of our state, which is rich in soil, will not be the exception. When that time comes your legislature will yield to the demands of the willing settler, and your forest reserves will be converted into farms, regardless of what it cost the state to plant the trees.

In view of these many objections I recommend that there be no further expansion of the policy of reforestation, and that agricultural lands in the forest reserve be thrown open to settlers, in lots not to exceed 160 acres for each applicant, and that further appropriations be cut down to what may be necessary to protect the property that the state now owns.

State University

The people of our state have been generous in their support of public education. While it is clearly their purpose to build up an educational system that will give equal facilities to all the people, it appears that in recent years a tendency has grown up under which higher education receives a rather disproportionate amount of the money available for educational purposes. This state of affairs has directed the attention of the people to our educational institutions and has subjected some of them, and particularly our state university, to severe criticism.

The people wish to maintain the university as a first class institution of learning; however, the amount of money needed to meet its demands is so large that the people have come to regard it as being unnecessarily extravagant and there is a general demand for a substantial reduction in the appropriations.

As a result of this growing feeling, the state board of public affairs ordered a survey, a report of which, covering a year of investigation, will soon be submitted to you. The discoveries of the investigators are many, and cannot be discussed in this message. No doubt there is sufficient

information in the report to enable you to correct the faults of the institution, whatever they may be.

There are certain features of the report to which I desire to call your especial attention. I have been informed that the report will show that there is now sufficient room, if economically used, to meet the demands of all departments, and accommodate all the students in attendance. If this is true it should put an end to building operations until it can be demonstrated that additional buildings are absolutely necessary, and appropriations amounting to $650,000 which were made available on March 1, 1915, and any other appropriations for building purposes the contracts for which have not yet been approved, should be promptly repealed.

I also wish to call attention to that part of the survey which deals with the subject of nonresident students. It is stated that nearly 1,400 are now in attendance who are not residents of the state of Wisconsin. This is a large per cent of the total attendance and raises the question whether the taxpayers of the state wish to maintain a university that will furnish facilities without limit to nonresident students, and whether the presence of so many students of this class is not working to the disadvantage of the young men and women who are residents of the state.

There seems to be a diversity of opinion on the question of annual per capita cost. However, the tuition fee of $100 per annum which nonresident students pay evidently does not compensate the state for the amount of money expended for teachers and facilities, and the amount that is lost annually on nonresident students is

large.

In considering this question we must take into account the value that the university management places upon the broadening influence that the presence of the nonresident

has

upon our own people. At the same time we must not lose sight of the fact that the university is maintained by the taxpayers of the state and that the average taxpayer of the state of Wisconsin is a man of moderate

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