EDITORIAL COMMENT 449 



trial posts involving scientific knowledge shall be under the direct 

 control of persons having adequate scientific training and knowledge. 



Special objects deal with obtaining adequate endowment for research 

 and advising as to the administration of such endowment, setting up 

 an employment bureau and a register of trained scientific workers, and 

 obtaining representation on the Whitley industrial councils. An appli- 

 cant is qualified for membership if he or she has passed the examina- 

 tion leading to a university degree in science, technology, or mathe- 

 matics and is engaged at the time of application on work of a re- 

 quired standard, though certain other qualifications are regarded as 

 equivalent to university degrees and admitted in lieu thereof. 



Do we not need some such unofticial. all-inclusive organization of 

 scientific workers in the United States? Certainly foresters should 

 find it an instrument of the greatest assistance, both in improving con- 

 ditions of employment and in advancing the profession by placing its 

 scientific work on a higher plane and securing increased recognition 

 for it. An organization of this sort would do much to bring about a 

 new feeling of comradeship among scientific workers ; it would fix 

 public attention on the importance of science in the national life ; and 

 it would wield an influence which no combination of workers in any 

 one profession or group of professions could hope to equal. 



We suggest that the President of the Society appoint a committee 

 to consider the entire question from the standpoint of the foresters of 

 the country. One of the first steps of such a committee would un- 

 doubtedly be to get in touch with the American Association of Uni- 

 versity Professors, the objects of which are similar to those of the 

 British Union, and which might perhaps serve as a nucleus for a more 

 inclusive organization. The latter would not, of course, interfere 

 with the Federal Employees Unions, which cover a distinct field and 

 have already demonstrated their usefulness. 



The Need of State and National Quarantines to Prevent Rapid 

 Spread of Chestnut Blight to Southern St.^^tes 



Recent inquiries have been made to the Office of Forest Pathology 

 for information concerning the spread of the chestnut blight. 



The chestnut blight may spread from infected regions to uninfected 

 regions by natural agencies or through nursery shipments. It is 

 this rapid spread southward through nursery-stock shipments that 

 State and Federal legislation may prevent. 



In December. 191 7, the blight had already been found as far south 



