662 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



viduality which makes its presence felt by others without their realiz- 

 ing its source or analyzing its character. What is not commonly 

 grasped is that personality is a result of forces controlled by the indi- 

 vidual and is the expression of past experience and heredity. But, more 

 than all else, it is the result of the struggle of one's inner consciousness 

 to acquire character, the mental and spiritual efforts of the past years, 

 the consciousness of power, based on achievement, and impressed with- 

 out apparent intention on those with whom its possessor comes in con- 

 tact ! This is the inner spirit of man which defies the materialists — the 

 domain, not of cold intellect, but of human individuality. Just as 

 physical effort increases muscular strength, so every mental struggle 

 to expand the horizon or strengthen the character reacts upon the mind 

 to mold the personality into a form not only more capable of repeating 

 these efforts but more powerful to influence others. 



15. Public Service. — Public service is not confined to positions as 

 public officials. It permeates every business and private activity. Civ- 

 ilization itself is founded on co-operative effort as contrasted with 

 selfish appropriation. Selfishness is a survival of barbarism and tends 

 to recreate barbaric conditions in which neither life, liberty, nor happi- 

 ness is safe. 



The individual who comes to realize that this law is fundamental and 

 attunes himself to it, whether he is working for the Government or for 

 a private corporation, will succeed. The organization which adopts it 

 as its platform and goal will become established beyond fear of over- 

 throw and will endure just so long as it holds to this ideal. The 

 strength of the Forest Service lies wholly in the fact that its ideals are 

 to give the greatest possible service, regardless of the personal incon- 

 venience or hardship imposed on the organization and its men. To do 

 this we must have men of the highest ideals, and must retain these men, 

 that their experience may not be lost ; for public service, to be effective, 

 must combine willingness with ability and training, and no organization 

 can measure up to its responsibilities in which the conditions imposed 

 from above upon its men are such that they tend to seek other fields of 

 employment. 



Part II 



We can now attempt to apply those standards of success to the tech- 

 nical graduate of a forest school. It is possible for me to discuss only 

 the Yale Forest School, but the number of graduates of this institution 

 who have been connected with the Forest Service, 247, is large enough 

 to offer a safe basis of generalization. Furthermore, this is an eastern 

 institution, and as such could be expected to suffer the maximum handi- 



