FOREST SERVICE. 203 



be the driving force. Closely centralized control or routine instruc- 

 tions would at best yield mediocre results. Forest officers must 

 largely direct and organize their own work. They must stand or fall 

 on accomplishment. To the extent that the service can by its pol- 

 icies and traditions make the sense of personal responsibility effective 

 throughout the ranks of the organization, its aggregate capacity will 

 be increased. 



6. Directing and "holding up" the work of field officers as far as 

 practicable by personal contact of superior with subordinates on the 

 ground and by personal inspection and instruction on the jobs them- 

 selves. Field inspection of the constructive sort is infinitely more 

 effective than paper supervision from a desk: and it is one of the 

 most telling means of training and stimulating the local officers. 

 The organization of the service with a view to more and better 

 inspection is a necessary feature of good personnel management. 



It rests primarily with the service itself to build up the quality and 

 capacity of its field personnel along these lines. That task has been 

 aggressively undertaken. But at three points we are dependent 

 in large measure upon action by Congress. The first is financial 

 provision for the training of forest rangers in field instruction camps. 

 The training of these officers must now be carried on by hook or by 

 crook, through incidental means and expedients which fall far short 

 of the mark. Provision should be made for a six or eight week§' 

 training camp in at least four of the field districts, where every year 

 30 to 40 rangers can be given expert instruction with special emphasis 

 upon fire detection and suppression. Such training camps can not 

 now be provided without sacrifices in the size of the protective force 

 which are believed to be unwarranted. 



A second financial need is to build up the numbers of technically 

 trained experts in forestry and grazing. The service has been short 

 in men of these qualifications ever since the war, whereas the volume 

 of work requiring technical skill is constantly growing and the need 

 of the service for new blood of this kind is greater than ever before. 

 It is of the utmost importance that funds be provided for additional 

 forest and grazing assistants who can be thrown directly into the 

 expert management of timber and forage and who at the same time 

 will develop wdthin the organization the initiative and capacity for 

 responsible assignments which are primary needs. 



In the third place, the growth of the field organization and its 

 adaptation to working conditions on the national forests are seriously 

 handicapped by the arbitrary limitations of the statutory salary roll, 

 on which a majority of the supervisors and rangers are carried. 

 These limitations make it impossible to recognize exceptional effi- 

 ciency, to allow for differences in responsibility and living costs under 

 a wide range of assignments, and other%vise to adjust compensation 

 to an organization of technical and executive workers. A statutory 

 roll of salaries is wholly out of harmony w^ith the character of the 

 services rendered by the field officers on national forests and with the 

 policy of Congress in dealing generally with employees of technical 

 and administrative duties. A change from statutory to lump-sum 

 provision in the case of all supervisors, deputy supervisors, and forest 

 "rangers would, without increasing the appropriations for the service, 

 greatly aid our efforts to build up an organization of men capable 

 of rendering a good account to the public. 



