450 JOURXAL OF FORESTRY 



in an executive committee of about three men, with a dummy board of 

 directors. I think they conscientiously beheve that in this way the 

 business of the Association will be performed with neatness and dis- 

 patch, friction in meetings and long-winded discussion of policy avoid- 

 ed, and the maximum of efficiency secured. I am sorry to take issue 

 with this point of view but experience has led me to believe that '"in 

 a multitude of counsellors there is wisdom." 



As illustration of the concrete working of this definite policy, the 

 enclosed contract of Mr. Ridsdale was railroaded through the board 

 last January without their being furnished copies of it and without its 

 being perused. They were 'simply told by Mr. Quincy that he had 

 prepared the contract and it was satisfactory. On being cjuestioned he 

 stated verbally a few of the details. I will show in the summary how 

 this contract has worked and what it threatens to do to the Association 

 finances. 



Next the project for enlarging the magazine was shoved through 

 the board by letter ballot. This may have been a good move. That 

 is not the point ; there was no consideration of the matter by the board. 



The policy of withholding the auditor's report and the details of 

 the financial operations for the last year which were available and 

 should have been presented at the annual meeting is a part of the 

 general plan that the less the board knows about the detailed working 

 of the operations the more efficient will the operations be. 



The policy formerly inaugurated, of having a quarterly board 

 meeting in New York has been discontinued and the meetings have 

 been held infrequently, and staged, not in New York where they could 

 have been better attended, but in places far distant which prevented 

 the attendance of certain directors, and in connection with meetings 

 which interfered seriously, on several occasions, with the work they 

 had to do. 



I flatly disagree with the whole policy of executive secrecy appar- 

 ently favored by Mr. Quincy. Mr. Ridsdale has definitely proposed to 

 me that the executive committee should be reduced which would mean 

 the elimination, probably, of all but Messrs. Quincy, Lyman, and your- 

 self, or possibly, Dr. Drinker. (Note. — This action was not taken, 

 but, as shown in Part III, was carried out in principle by the unauthor- 

 ized assumption, on the part of the Finance Committee, of all authority 

 over the terms of the Secretary's employment. — H. H. C.) 



The matter will come up in the near future in this concrete form 

 that Mr. Quincy will wish to call a meeting of the executive committee 

 instead of the meeting of the board and dispose of the financial policy 

 for the year in this committee. Those members of the board who 

 attended the Boston meeting had a right to hear something about the 

 finances. The only safety for the Association at present lies in bring- 

 ing the entire board in on this matter. We will then get some men like 

 Gov. Bass, Jenks, Ames, and possibly others, who will have a voice in 



