400 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



statistics showing the increasing losses of good men, the rising cost of 

 living, and the need of retaining good men to discharge the adminis- 

 trative functions of the service. In other words. Congress has been 

 given logic. But, speaking by and large. Congress does not in such 

 matters respond to logic alone. Congress responds to pressure. The 

 number of perfectly logical needs brought before Congress is infinite. 

 Only those needs backed by an organized public opinion can hope for 

 adequate congressional action. 



Now, right here we have at once the cause of past failure and the 

 hope of future success — organised public opinion. The public is the 

 place for our logic. Congress is the place for resulting public pressure. 

 And, after all, this is as it should be. 



As long as we presented Forest Service salaries as a departmental 

 question, the public was not interested. After all, what is one Govern- 

 ment department, more or less? But make it a question of the success 

 or failure of the great cause of national forestry, and you have some- 

 thing to talk about. Few western foresters realize the number of 

 influential citizens — especially in the East and Middle West — who are 

 ready to respond instantly to such an appeal. 



To make a long story short, the Forest Service should present its 

 logic to the American Forestry Association, and to those numerous 

 smaller organizations of various kinds which reach the "conserva- 

 tionist" public. The Forest Service should stress not the plight of the 

 department but the plight of forestry. And the whole profession should 

 join in advertising the danger. Results in Congress will follow. 



I am aware, of course, of the regulation on political activity — the 

 multitude of sins of commission which it prevents and the multitude 

 of sins of omission which it is sometimes called upon to condone. But 

 this may be dismissed as trivial and irrelevant. We can make our 

 appeal if we set about it with tact and determination. 



I am also aware that all the requisite facilities of organization to 

 reach the conservationist public may not be at hand. For this fact 

 foresters may blame only themselves. We have been inclined to smile 

 a little indulgently at the people who "love trees," who sometimes ex- 

 cessively admire our "wild, free life in the woods," and who now and 

 then confuse our high calling with that of the tree doctors, the pur- 

 veyors of hardy flowering shrubs, and other useful pursuits. But after 

 all, we now and again will need these people, and they are highly 

 intelligent and responsive people. Therefore, let any necessary facili- 

 ties of organization be created forthwith with our support. And in 



