156 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



led to the somewhat hasty conclusion that only men who were trained 

 in the application of such processes would have any future value in 

 the Forest Service. 



Since that date twelve years have elapsed. So far as the percentage 

 of men of technical training within the organization is concerned, we 

 find ourselves today in much the same situation as we were twelve 

 years ago. The proportion of technically trained men is not much 

 greater today than it was then; if anything, it is perhaps slightly less, 

 because of the large number of non-technical men which since have 

 been added to the organization. The tendency to favor either class of 

 men in the future upbuilding of the organization is not very marked 

 either way, but, if anything, it is somewhat toward a diminution rather 

 than an increase in the number of technical foresters employed purely 

 as technicians. 



A man who has given any thought to the subject, regardless of 

 whether he is or is not technically trained in the profession of forestry, 

 must naturally speculate to some extent on the reasons why the men 

 of technical training have not been more generally successful and have 

 not shown more marked advancement in the Forest Service organiza- 

 tion. Obviously they have certain decided advantages over the man 

 without training, due to the systematic mental training which a college 

 course usually gives, a thorough study of features of the work, and 

 more or less familiarity, theoretically at least, with the best processes 

 devised or formulated by the best trained minds throughout the entire 

 world. In studying the problem many contributing factors necessarily 

 present themselves, not all of which are ratable or subject to logical 

 analysis ; but, looking at the question from the point of view of a non- 

 technical man with seventeen years' experience in National Forest 

 administration, the main explanation of the problem seems to me to 

 be as follows : 



The average National Forest has always impressed me as somewhat 

 of a battlefield, in which business, economic, and, to some extent, social 

 conditions are in continual conflict. Throughout the West the develop- 

 ment of all three has been sporadic and illogical rather than continuous 

 and natural. The vast natural resources of each forest area have 

 been prizes for which different communities and different individuals 

 have been striving and struggling ever since the settlement of the 

 West was first initiated. Naturally community and individual selfish- 

 ness and greed are manifest to a marked degree and must be taken into 

 consideration in every step taken in the management of the areas by 

 the Forest Service. 



