EDITORIAL COMMENT 



Thk Society Votes for National Coixtrol 



The Society, by a large majority, voted in favor of practically all 

 of the provisions of the report of the Committee for the Application 

 of Forestry. This referendum vote is of interest from several stand- 

 points. 



The activities of most of the members are outside of Washington. 

 They deal with State and local problems. Their vote, therefore, in 

 favor of National control must reflect largely their personal experience 

 in meeting local problems. 



At first sight the total number of those voting seems rather small. 

 In the past the Society has cast its largest votes for President, and in 

 comparison to those we find that the ballot for the report is 33 below 

 the average total votes cast for President during the past three years. 

 It is greater than the total cast for President in 1918, less than that 

 cast in 1919. The Society has never polled a vote greater than 60 

 per cent of its total voting membership, and it reached that percentage 

 •only once. The average total vote has run along between 40 and 50 

 per cent of the total membership. The vote might have been somewhat 

 larger, no doubt, had it been taken at some other time of the year, for 

 in the middle of the field season it is manifestly difficult to bring out 

 the largest possible ballot. 



A small but distinctly audible group of members expressed regret 

 that the report was not voted upon, yes or no, as a whole. Such action 

 would have been at variance with the wishes of those present at the 

 last annual meeting, when a motion was introduced by Col. Greeley, 

 seconded by R. S. Kellogg, and favorably acted upon calling for a 

 ballot clause by clause. Moreover, and what is more to the point, no 

 one, not even the Committee itself, considered the program then framed 

 as a final plan which should be advocated without change. The report 

 was made, primarily, to obtain the views of the Society upon certain 

 big, clearly defined principles. These views have been obtained, and 

 the results are definite. 



Quite regardless of the result of the ballot, the Committee is to be 

 congratulated upon having instilled new life into the Society as a 

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