REFLECTIONS OF A LIFE DIRECTOR 345 



and enacted in some instances without reference to either the Executive 

 Committee or the Board. We find certain members of the Board de- 

 prived of their functions on committees and on the magazine by the 

 simple method of ignoring them. We find the constitutional safeguards 

 protecting the nomination and election of Directors by the members 

 progressively broken down and swept aside until at the final election 

 on February 25 no pretence was made of concealment but a slate of 

 Directors was presented by the Board itself in printed form, without 

 appointing a nominating committee. We find the idea that money, and 

 not democracy, has the right to dictate the management and policies of 

 the Association, a principle which strikes at the foundations of the 

 republic, and jeopardizes the entire future economic life of this nation 

 so far as it is dependent on future wood supplies, and finally we find 

 this entire program dressed up in sheep's clothing and sent out, at the 

 expense of the Association, to its members, as a great forward step 

 in forestry, as a measure necessitated to free the Association from 

 control by special interests, and as an assurance to those who desire 

 to aid in its work through substantial financial support. ''The Associa- 

 tion is therefore now in a position to do more to promote forestry 

 than ever before. It will continue unhampered its policy of truly rep- 

 resenting the public ! It will further its educational work to the limit 

 of its resources. It will strive to greatly increase its membership, to 

 extend its influence, to secure greater prestige, and to advance the 

 whole cause of forestry in every way its capacity permits." 



This result is to be accomplished first by driving all the remaining 

 foresters out of the Association, since they constitute a special interest 

 which has sought to control it, and are incapable of understanding the 

 problems of running such an association or the art of publicity. The 

 American public and American forestry must be protected against 

 foresters. Men like Bernard E. Fernow, Gififord Pinchot, Henry S. 

 Graves, William B. Greeley, Fellows of the Society of American For- 

 esters, are to be guarded against, and as for H. H. Chapman, elected 

 as a life director, and then basely turning against his benefactors, the 

 less said the better. Should the Journal of Forestry be so bold as 

 to print any material reflecting upon the present management of the 

 Association, its editor is discreetly informed over the telephone, without 

 witnesses, that a libel suit will be instituted. Foresters are easily intimi- 

 dated and do not know their own minds. They also lack the money 



