208 JOURNAL OF FORE,STRY 



This capacity to guide wisely, to wait patiently for a favorable open- 

 ing and then to take advantage of it, demands a happy balance of 

 qualities. It is as far removed from mere opportunism as it is from 

 futile idealism. It requires a resolute but not an opinionated will ; a 

 flexibility of mind that avoids running head-down against a stone wall, 

 along with a clear discernment of the objectives which must be at- 

 tained ; an all-round sanity rather than brilliance ; the power to see far 

 without overlooking what, because it is in the foreground, must be 

 reckoned with first; a mind constructive without being visionary, and 

 practical without being narrow. But successful leadership calls for 

 more than the power to choose the right course. There must also be 

 the power to organize; to judge men well; to enforce the will without 

 riding rough-shod, in such a way as to secure the full co-operation 

 and evoke the best powers of assistants and subordinates ; and to 

 infuse an organization with a sense of common purpose, the capacity 

 for team-play, and the spirit of loyalty to its head. In an appraisal 

 of the services rendered by Colonel Graves as Forester, the quality 

 of his personal leadership of the Service and its results must be placed 

 to the fore, along with his generalship in directing the strategy of the 

 campaigns that have been conducted. 



That the past decade has been one of very great progress in the de- 

 velopment of basic knowledge through research and in the application 

 of this scientific knowledge both in forest management and in methods 

 of use of forest products is a fact familiar to all foresters. None the 

 less, it is a fact which requires to be dwelt on when the significance to 

 the forestry movement of Colonel Graves' incumbency of the office of 

 Forester is under discussion. The entire history of the work of the 

 Forest Products Laboratory at Madison falls within his ten years. 

 No less important than the research work done at the laboratory has 

 been that which has served to bring about the enormous advance made 

 in the technical methods of handling the National Forests and the de- 

 velopment of the science of American silviculture generally. The 

 building up of investigative activities and their direction along the 

 right lines must be counted one of the important achievements which 

 stand to Colonel Graves' credit. Capacity to build up and rightly direct 

 these activities is an essential qualification for the position of Forester, 

 and this is one of the reasons why the ultimate success or failure of the 

 Service is involved in acceptance of the principle that the head of the 

 Service must be a forester. 



