PRELIM IX ARV REPORT OF EXPERIMENTS IN PENNSYLVANIA 295 



rate crew paid by the owner of the land — the Government. We reit- 

 erate these statements so often that it becomes a mental attitude and 

 in time we bow down before it ; we make a fetish of a negative idea. 

 We lose sight of the fact that through whatever agency the work is 

 done the cost is eventually paid by the consumer of the product, who 

 in this case is also the owner of the land — the people. If slash dis- 

 posal is necessary for the continuous productivity of the forest, the end 

 will justify the cost and the people will pay the price. If we grant the 

 premise, we must grant the conclusion. Unless we can endure being 

 called illogical or supine, if we believe in its necessity, we must insist 

 on its accomplishment. Here, again, I think we have created a Thing 

 and ascribed to it powers it does not possess. 



Perhaps the ugliest of our idols, the one most frequently thwarting 

 our purposes, the one most often removing us from the possibility of 

 joining the Sacred Xame Society — in short, the most heartily detested 

 and at the same time the most abjectly worshiped idol — might be called 

 the great P. P., a patron of age — hoary age — of the politician. We 

 spend the best energies of our lives trying to make our forest services 

 effective, especially that service the most important of all, the pro- 

 tective service, and yet. although we have been striving for thirty years 

 or more, we always just miss getting to our destination, for somewhere 

 astride every trail sits the hideous grinning Thing. It has balked us so 

 often that we ascribe to it powers which it really does not possess. We 

 have made a fetish of the idea that it cannot be done away with ; that 

 it is a natural growth and so invulnerable. The chances are. however, 

 that this Tiling is just as afraid of us as we are of it. Some day not 

 very far removed we will topple over that idol and discard the fetish, 

 and I have a feeling that none would be more anxious to help us than 

 the politician himself; I mean the more responsible politician — the 

 legislator and the cabinet minister. When we have gotten rid of the 

 Thing, we shall rub our eyes, feel a little foolish and much exasperated 

 that we endured its tyranny so long. 



We acknowledge, most of us, deep down in our hearts, that the 

 license system is not a satisfactory system for the disposal of our tim- 

 ber. It is sometimes unfair to the lumberman himself, and most of the 

 time unjust to the owners of the land — the people, ^fost of us w^ould 

 grant without argument that the direct timber-sales method, 'with the 

 abolition of dues and ground rents, is more business-like and more just 

 to all parties concerned, and yet because of our mental tendency to 

 worship Things As They .\re we are complacent, ^^'e who understand 



