6o6 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



it affects the welfare and happiness of 

 the people of the country as a whole. 

 Science and technic, therefore, are prop- 

 erly the servants of conservation, the 

 orderly and systematic means by which 

 the ideals of conservation are to be ap- 

 proached — with methods for reform in 

 the "distribution of values" as one of 

 their important aids, beyond question. 

 But the movement itself is fundament- 

 ally a demand for the honest and effi- 

 cient stewardship of the people's prop- 

 erty in the resources of the nation. Of 

 necessity, it is a political movement, be- 

 cause it has been set in motion in re- 

 sponse to an ethical awakening which, 

 in turn, was brought about by a broader 

 and more farseeing vision of economic 

 and sociological requirements. It can 

 no more be kept out of politics than 

 could slavery; it touches human rights 

 and liberties. 



Before leaving Professor Chamber- 

 lin's criticisms, we feel constrained to 

 note one further difference of opinion. 

 In effect, he asserts that as a matter of 

 history, geologists, more than any 

 others, have been the fathers of the 

 real conservation movement. We do 

 not believe that this statement is sup- 

 ported by the evidence, particularly if 

 it is meant by it to include the history 

 of other countries. It has been our 

 impression that, as a rule, the forests 

 were the first resource to which con- 

 servative methods were applied in other 

 lands. As regards the United States, 

 we believe it entirely just to say that 

 the development of the national forest 

 policy led the conservation movement 

 in the beginning, and leads it still. In- 

 cidentally, it is worth while remember- 

 ing, too, that forest conservation on a 

 national scale was made possible only by 

 invoking the rights and duties of na- 

 tional ownership, a fact which we par- 

 ticularly invite Professor Chamberlin to 

 reflect upon. 



Henry Wallace 



To the farmers of the middle West 

 Henry Wallace, president of the Third 

 Conservation Congress, is well known. 

 He was born seventy- four years ago on 

 a farm in Westmoreland County, Penn- 

 sylvania. He was educated for the 

 ministry of the United Presbyterian 

 Church, and for ten years, from 1866 

 to 1876, preached in Illinois and Iowa. 

 He was threatened with tuberculosis, 

 which was prevalent in his family, 

 and was advised by his physician to 

 to take up an outdoor life. He pur- 

 chased a number of farms in West- 

 ern Iowa and entered upon an active 

 and successful career as a farmer. He 

 began to write on farm topics and be- 

 came an influence for the betterment of 

 country conditions in the middle West. 

 In 1885 he established in Des Moines, 

 with his sons H. C. and J. P. Wallace, 

 Wallace's Farmer, the motto of which 

 is "Good farming, clear thinking, right 

 living." It was through his influence 

 that the special trains for agricultural 

 education were introduced in the West. 

 He was appointed by President Roose- 

 velt a member of the Country Life 

 Commission. 



Mr. Wallace has never ceased to be a 

 preacher as well as a farmer. His writ- 

 ing has been devoted as much to elevat- 

 ing the standard of life and character in 

 the country as to improving the techni- 

 cal and business conditions of the farm. 

 He is very active in church work and 

 gives a noon hour's talk each Thursday 

 during the fall, winter, and spring 

 months at the Des Moines Y. M. C. A., 

 which is attended by scores of business 

 men of the Iowa capital. 



The choice of Mr. Wallace for presi- 

 dent of the congress seems to be a wise 

 recognition of the largest element in 

 the conservation problem — the tillers of 

 the soil. 



