THE POREIST SERVICE AND ITS MEN 657 



service in its true sense opens one's eyes to true conditions, develops 

 soundness of judgment, and gives the quality of sympathetic under- 

 standing, which alone makes one a true leader of men. 



6. Efficiency. — The quality of efficiency may be compared with the 

 work of a highly complicated machine, which delivers the maximum 

 product without hitch or breakdown. Primarily, this quality demands 

 the elimination of errors. An ordinary college education often fails 

 in this, though engineering and mathematical training is peculiarly 

 effective in securing it. Errors mean but one thing — lack of concentra- 

 tion on the task in hand. The wits go wool-gathering. The individual 

 has never learned to harness his brain to work. With concentration 

 and elimination of errors comes its corollary, memory, which gives 

 one instant command of any situation or subject which has at any 

 previous time received his attention. Energy is the fuel. With this 

 added the result is certain. 



7. Co-ordination. — Men may be tremendously efficient as individuals, 

 but lack the power to delegate responsibility or authority. Such men 

 should never rise higher than a one-man job. To be in charge of any 

 large enterprise two qualities are essential — a thorough understanding 

 of men, with command of their respect, and ability to grasp funda- 

 mentals in their relative importance and direct the energy of others 

 along the most essential lines. No man can do this who is mentally 

 lazy or who has not himself gained a large measure of experience in 

 the lower ranks. 



8. Hardiness. — The work of a forester demands a rugged physique 

 and enjoyment of physical hardships ; but it requires more than this. 

 Mental ruggedness is hard to define, but none the less real. The en- 

 vironment of the forest officer, until he has won his spurs and attained 

 a glimpse of the swivel chair, is not so much a matter of muscular 

 fatigue and coarse food, makeshift beds, and exposure to heat and 

 cold as it is a constant contact with men of a primitive cast of mind, 

 elemental emotions, and childish whims, who often display complete 

 lack of reasoning powers, coupled with vicious tendencies. Men who 

 have been raised in hothouses, without experience either with ignorance 

 or depravity, are slated for some rude jolts and may utterly fail to 

 come through the "melting pot." Such men lack mental hardiness. 

 The necessity of understanding the average character and impulses of 

 the local residents is unquestioned, but the surest way to lose all respect 

 and authority is to debase one's own standards of conduct- and moralitv 

 in order to assimilate local color and become solid with the public. 

 Tolerance and license are two different things. The man who succeeds 



