THE T?0mST SERVICE AND ITS MEN 669 



who, though lacking this training, are in a true sense self-educated do 

 not fall into this error, but give the technical greenhorn at least as 

 much consideration as they would any other promising but inexperi- 

 enced man, and usually bring them through to their mutual advantage. 

 The man whose mind is really trained, whether in or out of school, is 

 fair to all alike and will make the best use of every man in his organi- 

 zation, technical or non-technical. 



But the discouragements encountered from the lack of executive 

 efficiency in the individual official are not sufficient to account for the 

 present conditions. This condition has always existed and hundreds 

 of technical men have survived the ordeal. The trouble is far deeper 

 rooted and more serious. It lies in the existence of the "statutory roll" 

 for supervisors, rangers, and other permanent Forest officers, copied 

 after the older bureaucratic forms of Government service. In Wash- 

 ington, also, are thousands of superannuated Government clerks, pen- 

 sioners of Uncle Sam, living on meager salaries, without ambition, 

 working at a very low standard of efficiency, and creating in the minds 

 of Congressmen and others an impression which they in turn uncon- 

 sciously tend to apply to all Government employees. 



Within the last four years the Forest Service has, for lack of funds, 

 appointed only 44 men to the grade of Forest Assistant, though the 

 services of men of this type are needed now more than ever. No ex- 

 amination was given last year for this class of men. Hundreds of men 

 are annually taken into the Service as rangers to replace losses by resig- 

 nation; and technical men, after spending four years and exhausting 

 their financial resources in obtaining an education, can still effect an 

 entrance into the ranks by the same route as was open to them before 

 they started on training, namely, by serving as fire guards or laborers 

 for six months to a year to establish local residence, taking the ranger 

 examination, serving a probational period as ranger for another year 

 at $1,100 in one of the statutory positions, in which they may remain 

 indefinitely, until vacancies are created above by resignation or promo- 

 tion. These uncertainties of status and prospect, and not at all the 

 character of their duties, deter such men from tackling the work. 



In the rural districts of New England the more ambitious men went 

 West, until the residue fell far below the average in ability. The loss 

 of the more able leaders, who in the past have been drawn to the Forest 

 Service by the inspiration of the work and its great prospects, will have 

 the same effect upon this service; and its chiefs are powerless to pre- 

 vent this deterioration unless Congress is aroused to the danger and 

 convinced of the need for a more elastic and progressive policy of deal- 



