COMMENTS ON KNKIPP S PAPER i>00 



the man with college training about $2,000 per annum, was sufficiently 

 convincing of the economic value of training. Steel, electrical, and 

 engineering industries are very nearly 100 per cent under technical 

 control. Can it be that in forest industry alone training is of no use ; 

 that basic knowledge is a handicap? No! Technical control of this 

 industry is rapidly becoming an assured fact. Just now it is slowed 

 down by lack of trained men to fill demands. Presently it will hasten 

 forward. The main purpose of such discussion as this is to hasten the 

 advent of technical control and incidentally to warn the obstructionist 

 to get out of the way before the steam-roller gets him. 



The family troubles Mr. Kneipp mentions are no doubt serious 

 enough. They are no worse with foresters than with trained men in 

 engineering and other allied lines. There is no complete solution. It 

 may be said, however, that cultured women who love nature and endure 

 the pioneer life are not lacking any more than men. Both cultured 

 women and cultured men, if they go in the right spirit, are needed in 

 the backward communities. The policy of placing in these communi- 

 ties representatives of the Service of the same cultural stage as the 

 people they deal with is bad. In effect, so far as action of the Service 

 is concerned, it condemns the backward communities to continued back- 

 wardness. They should be given as many contacts with the outside 

 world as possible. This gives incentive to promising youths from these 

 communities to try for higher prizes than their local surroundings can 

 give and will bring many a genius to the service of the world. It has 

 been scientifically proven that genius develops most often where there 

 is the most social contact. Moreover, the method of organizing work 

 of a technical force to make efficient use of the varying seasons gives 

 every man several months in town every year. To this every energetic 

 citizen will in the near future be entitled. With the assistance of mod- 

 ern transportation, the narrowness of the city man and the countryman 

 are alike being leveled into a universal culture, where all are equally 

 conversant with the freedom of the countryside and intensive pleasure 

 and culture of the cities. This is already common in the West, where 

 it is rare to meet a man in any station of life who is not equally at home 

 with members of his class cither in country or city and who docs not 

 understand the requirements of l)olh kinds of life. W'liy should the 

 forester diftCr from others in this respect? 



By Frederick E. Olmsted — 



In discussing the nMe to be played by the forester in National Forest 

 administration, wc are prone to confuse the argument at the very start. 

 Mr. Kneipp. in his article in the February number of the Journwl, 



