642 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



be attached to logging engines, cards 

 bearing fire wardens' addresses to be 

 tacked up near telephones, and many 

 others. I think, however, that those al- 

 ready recounted will be sufficientl}' sug- 

 gestive and I want to use the time re- 

 maining in speaking of the highly im- 

 portant subject of getting better legis- 

 lation. 



Neither my topic nor the time avail- 

 able warrants discussion of the policies 

 to be expressed by forest laws, but with 

 respect to engineering their passage, I 

 can say that our experience teaches two 

 cardinal principles of success. Har- 

 monize and organize your support early 

 and thoroughly. Do not depend upon 

 lobbying, but exert your pressure 

 through the legislators' constituents at 

 home. Were I to outline a legislative 

 campaign it would be about as follows : 



Complete your bill two or three 

 months before your legislative body 

 convenes, but not before you have n^ktd 

 advice of all factions it affects and made 

 it satisfy the sane majority of each. If 

 it doesn't, the chances are either that 

 it is not a good bill or that you have 

 not learned to extol its merits con- 

 vincingly. Then print it, with an attrac- 

 tive cover bearing the official endorse- 

 ment of all the influential agencies you 

 can elist. This disarms suspicion, also 

 the human tendency to tinker with it 

 which will keep cropping up till it is 

 either dead or signed. Precede the bill 

 itself by a lively argument to engage 

 interest, follow every section with full 

 explanation of its particular need and 

 meaning, and finish the booklet with a 

 dire prophecy of what will happen if it 

 is not supported. 



Send this circular to everyone you 

 can think of ; lumbermen, ministers, 

 women's clubs, bankers, merchants, 

 newspapers and, of course, the legisla- 

 tors themselves ; always with a special 

 letter making an individual appeal for 

 support based upon the recipient's voca- 

 tion, and asking if he has any changes 

 to suggest. He seldom will have, so 

 you take few chances, and the majority 

 are pleased. Anyway, you are out in 

 the open. No one can say later he 

 does not understand the bill. By time 

 the fight is really on you have discov- 



ered your opposition and how to meet 

 it — a most important point. 



In the meantime you have been per- 

 fecting mailing lists of two kinds. One 

 is the widest possible, classified by voca- 

 tions or other distinctions suggesting 

 special arguments, and the stationery 

 and signatures of the letters you send 

 are as varied as the institutions you can 

 get to let you use their prestige in this 

 way. These addresses are classified 

 again by their representation in the leg- 

 islature and each receives at least one 

 letter containing stamped addressed en- 

 velopes to his own representatives, with 

 a request to write these demanding sup- 

 port of the bill unchanged. The ma- 

 jority will comply just because you have 

 trusted them with a few postage stamps. 

 The second list is of one or more people 

 in each town whom you appoint local 

 agitators to follow your instructions at 

 any time without question. It is not 

 hard to get such a list of lieutenants if 

 you start your general letter writing 

 campaign early enough. It develops 

 through the replies you receive. 



When the bill is introduced, do not 

 lobby — at least not much. Ask every 

 member whether he is for or against it, 

 give him another of your printed ex- 

 planations of it, and leave him pleased 

 because you do not talk him to death 

 when he has important business on 

 hand. This is practically the sole job 

 of your lobbyist: to advise you who is 

 so sure to support you that he can be 

 safely neglected, who needs pressure, 

 and the stage of your bill every min- 

 ute — its progress through committees, 

 etc. With this information you marshal 

 pressure from outside. What the re- 

 luctant members need is not your argu- 

 ments for the bill, but expression from 

 their constituents. You keep on writing 

 letters by the hundred or thousand, 

 occasionally sending out a flurry of 

 telegrams to indicate urgency, always 

 telling the recipients the particular 

 members they are to write or wire to 

 and what is needed, even if it is only 

 to hasten the bill through a committee. 

 And always emphasize that the bill is to 

 be left unchanged. 



If you have never tried such a cam- 

 paign, two things will surprise you — 



