164 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



In my judgment, Mr. Pinchot, Mr. Graves, and Mr. Price had the 

 correct point of view when the forests were organized, namely, that 

 the organization and management of the forests should be based upon 

 technical knowledge. 



I question Mr. Kneipp's inference that technically trained men have 

 been less successful than non-technical men. Mr. Kneipp states that 

 the average National Forest impresses him as a battlefield, in which 

 the business, economic, and, to some extent, social conditions are in 

 continual conflict. I do not believe these are more in conflict on the 

 National Forests than elsewhere. The development of a National For- 

 est might be likened to the development of a large farm. Do you sup- 

 pose the agricultural colleges and agricultural research stations we have 

 developed in every State in the Union would have attained the position 

 that they now occupy in national economy if the work which they are 

 doing did not really make American farms more productive ? Thorough 

 technical training in agriculture is known these days to be essential for 

 the greatest success. 



The management of a National Forest looks forward for many years. 

 It is not concerned primarily with the petty differences which arise 

 from day to day between business and social conditions. It is more 

 intimately concerned with the direction that the development of the 

 forest takes. The right direction of development needs and must have 

 technical training and experience. Would Mr. Kneipp urge the gradual 

 reduction of technically trained men and the increase in employment 

 of non-technical men until the entire personnel of the National Forest 

 was made up of untrained men from the purely technical point of view? 



We all appreciate the fact at the present time that a vast number of 

 activities on the National Forest do not require forestry training. 

 Although this is true, the man in charge of the forest or in charge of 

 a given part of the work on the forest must be able to look ahead to 

 something that approaches the ideal and toward which his work must 

 move if he has the correct notion of the work. 



Kneipp mentions the importance of leadership. I also recognize this 

 importance. Where is leadership to be found? Among uneducated 

 or non-technical men or among educated, technically trained men ? To 

 be sure, one will occasionally find a natural leader without technical 

 training, but the chances of leadership there are going to be much less 

 than among the technically trained men, and, in my opinion, the experi- 

 ence in the Forest Service for the last ten years proves it. 



I agree with Kneipp that the administration of a forest is a business 

 undertaking, but today are not the General Electric Company and other 



