7G8 JOURXAL OF FORESTRY 



with wise parents to guide their development, very few would have 

 failed to pass the most rigid tests. In other words, their defects had 

 been caused by their surroundings or conditions of life. 



Now the effect upon the industry of the nation of this high per- 

 centage of subnormal lives is bad — distinctly bad, judged by even the 

 most cold-blooded, calculating material standards. For the industrial 

 product of these people is necessarily inferior. Capital is learning this, 

 and a very serious effort is now being made to improve the quality of 

 labor and reduce the turnover. Better working conditions are the 

 order of the day. Progressive employers are voluntarily offering more 

 favorable conditions to their employees. They are themselves recog- 

 nizing the wisdom of framing their contracts in the social interest. A 

 few years ago one never heard of a playground for the employees of 

 an industrial plant. Today, as one rides from the suburbs into the 

 larger cities through manufacturing districts, playgrounds are to be 

 seen that have been outfitted by the factories. vSome of them operate 

 schools and gymnasiums as well. 



We must realize that business is not concerned merely with property 

 and contract, but deals in human values, and that its welfare and that 

 of the community are indissolubly bound together. There is need of 

 greatly advancing means and methods for the development of the 

 human factor. It is unnecessary to emphasize the importance of this 

 to the State and Nation. 



The foremost purpose, the greatest asset in the creating of park or 

 forest might well be the use of such areas in the building of human 

 values. The preservation of the soil, water, timber, or forage, go for 

 naught without we first have, the human factor in which the high 

 features are paramount. 



America as a Nation is commercial and yet the human values must 

 stand above property to perfect this commercialism. The foundation 

 of life is to preserve given standards. From this basis there is every 

 argument for national activities looking always to this end. 



In the Life of Henry Adams there is the following statement: 



"Winter and summer then, were two hostile lives, and bred two sep- 

 arate natures. Winter was always the effort to live ; summer was 

 tropical license. Whether the children rolled in the grass, or waded 

 in the brook, or swam in the salt ocean, or sailed in the bay, or fished 

 for smelts in the creeks, or netted the minnows in the salt marshes, or 

 took to the pine woods and the granite quarries, or chased muskrats 

 and hunted snapping turtles in the swamps, or mushrooms or nuts on 



