Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Wallace. My name is Robert Wallace. We've heard economics batted around here quite a lot today. I happen to be an economist. I mention that because it indicates I have some familiarity with the general principles, anyway. Well, there are a lot of good economics, Jim; but you're not going to give me time for that in the 3 minutes. In the past 48 years, to indicate my credentials—for the past 48 years, I've been on the staff of 12 universities in this country in eluding two—three Big Ten and two Pac Ten. Most recently, UCLA last winter. So I am familiar with the general problem. Mr. Kromer indicated that we all were either on one side or the other here. And I don't think that that necessarily must be true particularly as I look at the question of the Kelly-Cayuse-Toboggan Creek problem where we hear repeatedly that it's not economically viable. That it requires a subsidy. Assuming as we all at least pay lip service to it that we believe in the American system, the free enterprise system. What does that say about how such—how any resource should be used? We say, 'Well, our resources are scarce. We want to use them, allocate them according to what the public wants.' So what it means is that if you don't run your business in such a way as to produce what the public wants, you go broke unless the Government steps in and distorts that allocation by giving you some money to carry out an activity that you cannot carry out without support. Because what it means very simply—if you can't cover your cost without subsidy, all it means is that the public would rather have those resources used somewhere else in some other activity and presumably is enabling the other activity to outbid you for the resources. So what I'm saying is that I can't address myself to the facts in Kelly-Toboggan-Cayuse Creek area. But if it true, we're all agreed that's its pretty superb wildlife-recreational area. If it's true that the proposal to build all these roads is not economically viable based on the timber that's there, then I think that the American system, the free enterprise system, suggests that we probably ought to leave it as it is. Thank you very much.