THE OLD ORDER CHANGES 205 



and by rising to each opportunity and emergency were prepared for 

 the next. For a long time the eggs were all in one basket, and the 

 strength of the basket was established only as it proved equal to carry- 

 ing the eggs. 



Fortunately, the most serious dangers that surrounded the Forest 

 Service during the formative years of its history are now left behind. 

 Never again is the National Forest policy likely to depend, for preser- 

 vation from utter shipwreck, on the clear vision and sure judgment of 

 a single helmsman. The gains of twenty-two years under two great 

 pilots have brought the ship out of the shoals. Not, of course, into 

 permanently fair weather. There is still plenty of need for strong 

 and wise leadership. If at any future time the standards of National 

 Forest administration should fail to be maintained at a high level, if 

 ability to meet crises skillfully, to handle the business efficiently, to 

 apply the best technical knowledge, and to assure an organization both 

 capable and inspired by high ideals of public service, should ever be 

 found wanting, the consequences would be very serious. But dissat- 

 isfaction with the work of the Service would take the form of a de- 

 mand for its improvement, not its discontinuance. And the Service 

 should be able to produce from within itself its own leaders. The 

 National Forests are safe. They have become an integral part of the 

 economic life of the country; they have won their place with the 

 public ; and they afford a training school for capable men. 



Among the purposes with which Colonel Graves took office, not the 

 least important in his mind was that of establishing the principle that 

 the head of the Forest Service should be a trained specialist, qualified 

 by technical knowledge to direct its work understandingly. Before his 

 appointment was decided on there was reason to fear that a selection 

 might be made of some one unfamiliar with the work of the Service 

 and unconnected with the profession of forestry. His own selection 

 not merely removed that danger ; it put in charge of the Service, as 

 was at once recognized on every side, the logical successor of Mr. 

 Pinchot. From the standpoint of political expediency, which doubt- 

 less played its part in determining the choice, this was an eminently 

 wise move. It amounted practically to an assurance on the part of 

 President Taft that there was no hostility to the Forest Service, or 

 purpose to halt its work, animating the Administration. In Colonel 

 Graves, therefore, the Service obtained a chief who was not only a 

 forester by training, but also, in the eyes alike of its members and of 



