LAND ECONOMICS 
133 
of dwellers in cities are tenants? What proportion are owners? 
In what-age group do tenants and owners fall? Do we find, as in 
the case of farms, an increasing proportion of ownership as age 
increases? These are some of the subjects which are calling for 
investigation by land economists. 
Private ownership of land is in general the strongest induce- 
ment to rapid development and efficient use. But sometimes the 
inducement is so strong that private owners exploit natural 
resources to the detriment of the public interest. Then it becomes 
economically and socially desirable to extend the sphere of public 
ownership or to curtail the “Intensivity” of private rights without 
establishing full public property. This has been the general ten- 
dency in late years. By way of illustration, economists find that 
the timber of the United States is being cut four or five times as 
fast as it is being shown. Forest land in the United States is 
largely privately owned. Since it is being exploited under private 
ownership in this country, the weight of scientific opinion has 
been thrown in the direction of extending public ownership of 
forest land. For similar reasons a considerable area of land 
used or useful for highways, water power sites, parks, etc., has 
passed from private to public ownership. Public ownership is 
regarded as most conducive to the conservation of natural 
resources. 
Where the public need is not overwhelming, and where the 
effects of the misuse of privately owned land are limited to a 
relatively few individuals, the prevailing opinion is in favor of 
public regulation of private rights. This social side of private 
property also has developed rapidly in recent years, particularly 
in the centers of population. Most economists will be inclined to 
support properly-drawn city planning and zoning laws, in so far 
as they aim to stabilize land values and to economize the use of 
land. An instance of the relation between ownership and the 
regulated use of land is found in the increasingly perplexing traffic 
problems of the largest cities. The economist points out that 
adequate relief for traffic congestion represents a variety of very 
complex problems. Building subways and three-deck streets may 
simply attract more people and induce the construction of build- 
ings of a kind to promote congestion, and thus make the problem 
worse than it was before. Tt is also found that it is not enough 
simply to restrain land owners from building skyscrapers.