JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Vol. XVII MAY, 1919 No. 5 



A PLEA FOR ASSERTION 

 By Frederick E. Olmsted 



It is apparent that foresters are in for a struggle if forestry is to be 

 something more than a thing talked about. It will be no more than 

 that until privately owned timberlands in this country are kept pro- 

 ductive. There is now ample evidence to show that we are entering 

 upon a period of real national accomplishment, and that the country 

 will welcome a definite constructive program aimed at the practice of 

 forestry in the zcoods. 



Let me beg that we assert ourselves. First, we must agree among 

 ourselves as to what should be done and how to do it. We must not 

 argue only ; we must grapple with the problem from the ground up. 

 For the past ten years we have acted as if we were afraid of our 

 souls, declaring ourselves timorously or not at all. Let us not be di- 

 verted from our course by an opposition which cries for facts involving 

 long years of research. We already have such facts as are necessary 

 to show that our forests are being destroyed, that it is a practicable 

 matter to keep them reasonably productive, and that it is vital to the 

 welfare of the country, both regionally and as a whole, that its forests 

 should not be destroyed. Therefore, why not begin to apply forestry 

 throughout our principal forest regions ? Let us, without question, 

 enter upon a program of thoroughgoing and well co-ordinated research 

 in order that we may know precisely how best to handle each forest 

 type in years to come, to the end that the greatest and most desirable 

 yields of wood may be obtained; but let us not confuse. the need for 

 research with the need for immediate action of an economic and po- 

 litical nature. If we should become unduly immersed in research, it 

 might happen that by the time our investigative work was concluded we 

 should find ourselves without forests upon which to apply our findings. 



Let us afiirm what we already know. The profession of forestry in 

 this country has been kept upon a particularly high, clean plane, and 

 will bear strict comparison with any other of the leading professions. 

 For the past twenty years we have worked with good results in many 

 differejst fields of endeavor and have accumulated technical, economic 

 and political knowledge of distinct value. We have failed, however, 

 properly to assemble this knowledge, rightly to place it before the public, 

 and energetically to put it to practical use. Let us. by all means, 

 secure co-operation in our work from all possible sources ; but let us 

 not forget that co-operation which is worth anything, real rather than 

 lip co-operation, will come only after we have fought for and created it. 



W^e lack aggressiveness, not confidence. Let us change our passive 

 attitude to one of vigorous assertion. 



471 



