RECENT FOREST PROPAGANDA IN THE PHILIPPINES 747 



ticos de la Ciencia Forestal." The editor of the paper featured these 

 articles on the first page, under the general heading, "Problema Funda- 

 mental." While this series of articles, and others along the same gen- 

 eral lines, naturally appeal to only a small audience, they are distinctly 

 worth while and have aroused no little discussion and comment. The 

 Filipinos in their national aspirations are exceedingly anxious to be 

 numbered in the vanguard of the more enlightened nations of the 

 world, and these summaries of what other countries have done and 

 are doing act as a very healthy stimulus to endeavor. Then, too, there 

 are constantly appearing articles on special subjects of forestry in- 

 terest, discussions of the economic importance of forestry in the Philip- 

 pines, on the lumber industry, on the fuel supply, the export trade, the 

 relationship of the mangrove forests to the fishing industry, etc., etc. 

 Among the articles which carry much weight with Filipino readers are 

 those written by Filipino members or supporters of the Bureau, and 

 signed either by their true names or with a noin de plume. When- 

 ever possible, Filipino officials, editors, and reporters were invited to 

 accompany representatives of the Bureau to the Forest School to in- 

 spect the work there being done and to speak to the students, or to 

 visit other activities in the near-by provinces. Such trips never fail to 

 produce prompt and beneficial results. The Filipino reporter is as 

 alert and as active as his American colleague, and the various move- 

 ments and promotions of the different forest officers are duly chron- 

 icled in the daily press. Extracts from letters and articles from abroad 

 telling of the advancement and achievements of forestry in other coun- 

 tries, of the activities of the different national forest services, of the 

 foreign market for Philippine woods and other forest products — all 

 these and many more of the same character were translated in Manila, 

 mimeographed, and sent to the various periodicals throughout the 

 islands, and perhaps partly because it is by no means an easy task to 

 fill the pages of a periodical in the Philippine provinces, all such articles 

 are promptly accepted and published by the editors. 



But, as has been said above, newspapers and other periodicals reach 

 only a comparatively small circle of readers. They are an important, 

 but by no means an adequate, means for conducting an educational 

 campaign. To reach the very much larger class who, while capable of 

 reading, with more or less difficulty and imperfectly, their native dia- 

 lect, seldom or never see a newspaper, several hundred thousand copies 

 of a circular were printed and distributed throughout almost all parts 

 of the archipelago. This circular endeavors to explain in a simple, 

 easily understood manner the benefits which accrue to the people 



