KEVIIiWS 53 



Abroad'; one by Mr. Edward A. Bowers, on 'The Present Conditions 

 of Forests in the PubHc Lands' ; and the third by Mr. B. E. Fernow, 

 on 'The PracticabiHty of an American Forest Administration." " It is 

 possibly a cavil to call attention to the fact that only in this passage do 

 the first and third of these names appear without the title of "Dr." ; 

 but accuracy in details is no more a shining virtue of Professor Ely's 

 present "study" than is its sense of proportion and perspective. The 

 next mention of Dr. Fernow's name is due to the fact that in 1896 he 

 "gave a course of lectures on the economic aspects of forestry, under 

 the auspices of the Department of Political Economy, in the Univer- 

 sity of Wisconsin." . The passage thus introduced occupies nearly a 

 full page. A little later a quotation is introduced as from "Dr. Fer- 

 now's address of 1886." The original may be found both in Dr. Fer- 

 now's "Economics of Forestry," published in 1902, and in an address 

 delivered in August, 1895, before the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. On page 21 we are told that "the Forest 

 Service was created February i. 1908." This misstatement is imme- 

 diately follow^ed by the sentence: "Xor should we neglect to mention 

 the work of Dr. Gififord Pinchot, which has been epoch-making in 

 conservation." This is all that Professor Ely has to say regarding Mr. 

 Pinchot. Except for a footnote of no importance, Mr. Pinchot's name 

 appears only in the somewhat equivocal statement that "if the econo- 

 mists helped prepare the way, we may say that, under the leadership 

 of President Roosevelt and such men as President Van Hise and Gif- 

 ford Pinchot, the public first became conscious of the real import of 

 conservation policies." 



It is impossible to ascribe solely to ignorance the grudging character 

 of Professor Elys appraisal of the work of the true leaders in the 

 great movement of which President A'an Hise has said that "among 

 the men who have promoted the modern conservation movement, Gif- 

 ford Pinchot has first place." And again, "Gifford Pinchot, generally 

 recognized as the most potent force underlying the conservation move- 

 ment." 



Of pure ignorance, it is true, there is ample evidence. Professor 

 Ely simply did not take the trouble to qualify himself sufficiently by 

 adequate study of the documents for the task to which he put his hand. 

 If he ever heard of Professor Marsh's book, "The Earth as ^Modified 

 by Human Action," by far the most notable American early contribu- 

 tion to what eventually became the conservation movement, the text 

 before us gives no sign of the fact. The volume is innocent of a bib- 



