RECENT FORESTRY PROPAGANDA IN THE PHILIPPINES 



By FoRSYTHE Sherfesee^ 

 Adviser in Forestry^ Chinese Government 



Whatever may be the poHtical future of the Philippines, the uhimate 

 success or failure of forestry in the islands must depend, if not wholly, 

 at least in a very large degree, upon the Filipinos themselves. Neither 

 Americans nor any one else can really do much more than to point the 

 way. It must rest with the great body of the Filipino people to decide 

 whether the movement shall be continued and strengthened, or whether 

 it shall be allowed to sink into more or less gradual decay. If America 

 should at any time decide to withdraw completely from the Philip- 

 pines, these statements are obvious ; if the present political relationship 

 is continued, it is reasonably sure that the autonomy of the Filipinos 

 will be steadily increased, and already their power and influence in the 

 legislature and in the executive branches of the government are very 

 large. But even if, for the sake of argument, America should retract 

 the liberal policy which has been rapidly and consistently followed since 

 the establishment of civil government, and should institute and main- 

 tain an autocratic control, forestry in the Philippines would be no more 

 than an artificial and comparatively ineffective institution, without the 

 sympathetic co-operation of the inhabitants themselves. Under auto- 

 cratic conditions there would be no great difficulty in planning and 

 securing the adoption of an ideal system of forest conservation — on 

 paper ; but its practical application throughout the 60,000 square miles 

 of forests in the archipelago would be a very different matter — forests 

 scattered over hundreds of islands, large and small, mostly with a 

 rugged, mountainous country, difficult of access even under the most 

 favorable conditions, where trails are poor or lacking altogether, where 

 means of communication and transportation are primitive and few, and 

 which are inhabited, if inhabited at all, by people who would find it not 

 very difficult to ignore the forest laws if they should strongly so desire. 



On the other hand, the Filipino is innately a very law-abiding person. 

 He has many admirable, and some very lovable, characteristics. He is, 

 I think, the most honest person I have ever known. Of course there 

 are thieves and cheats — no more than any other people have the Fili- 



' Formerly Director of Forestry, Philippine Islands. 

 740 



