456 JOURNAL or" forestry 



During the summer of 1919 after the criticisms of the magazine 

 began to appear Mr. Ridsdale began running a larger number of articles 

 on forestry. In August there appeared, without warning, an article 

 by Joseph A. Kitts, entitled "Forest Destruction Prevented by Control 

 of Surface Fires," which had previously appeared in other publica- 

 tions, and which was a defense of the theory known as "light burning," 

 which has given endless trouble in California, and should under no 

 circumstances have appeared without editorial comment or a reply. 

 The Secretary published it for its news value. In September following, 

 another article was published, again without comment or a chance 

 to reply, which proved to be a skillful attack upon the very founda- 

 tions of economic forestry. 



The indignation which these publications aroused led the Secretary 

 to propose to Mr. Pack a plan by which the difficulty of satisfying 

 the "foresters" could be solved and at the same time not clutter up 

 American Foresir\ with forestry articles. \\^ithout consulting the 

 Board of Directors, the plan was launched of getting out two editions 

 of American Forestry, one, containing articles on forestry, to be sent 

 to foresters only, the other, or popular edition, to go to the remaining 

 members and to be devoted largely to popular articles on animals, 

 birds and flowers, "such as the public are interested in." Two number* 

 of this foresters' edition were actually issued and contained several 

 articles zurittcn for the public by foresters The plan, already in effect, 

 was told to tile board at its next meeting but no approval was asked, 

 as Mr. Pack was paying for it. 



Since the conception of foresters was that the magazine was intended 

 to convey forestry to the public rather than to foresters, and that the 

 articles contributed by them were for this purpose, and since they had 

 their own publication in the Journal of Forestry, this plan did not 

 receive their approval but the contrary, and much of Mr. Pack's later 

 rancor at foresters as a class may be traced to this rejection of his 

 philanthropic offer to provide them with an edition of American For- 

 estry of their own. Had the board or any informed member thereof 

 been consulted in this venture, its inadvisability would have been 

 pointed out at once. 



PART VII — THE FAILURE OF TITE ASSOCIATION TO FIGHT FOR VITAL ISSUES 



Financial independence carries with it independence of policy. 

 Financial dependence entails loss of this independence, and subservi- 



