RECENT FOREST TROPAGANDA IN THE PHILIPPINES 749 



any failure to comply with this request. A circular letter to the same 

 effect to all municipal presidentes was also mailed from the central 

 government in Manila, and I wrote personally to each provincial gov- 

 ernor and to each member of the assembly asking for his co-operation 

 and influence. The good offices of the constabulary, both officers and 

 men, were next requested, and cordially granted ; and each constabu- 

 lary station was furnished copies of the circular, in the proper dialects, 

 for distribution by the regular patrols and otherwise throughout many 

 isolated regions which are seldom or never reached by any other offi- 

 cials or employees of the insular government. All forest rangers are 

 required to carry a number of copies on all field trips, and to distrib- 

 ute them wherever other methods have proved inadequate. Finally, 

 most of the 10,000 copies in English were delivered to the Bureau of 

 Education, which very kindly agreed to distribute them to every school 

 in the Islands, the teacher in charge being requested to read and explain 

 the contents to all the pupils and to paste up the circular for permanent 

 reference. 



There remains, however, the very large class of those forest users 

 and Filipinos in general who are unable to read, and in reaching these 

 newspapers, articles, and printed circulars are of no value, except per- 

 haps in the case of those illiterate members of a family which contains 

 one or more — children generally — who have had at least some slight 

 educational advantages, and who can read aloud, more or less imper- 

 fectly, the contents of a written page. To get in touch with this part 

 of the population several methods were devised. A short talk was 

 prepared on the work and objects of the Bureau, following much the 

 same lines as in the preparation of the circular previously referred to. 

 This was mimeographed and a copy supplied to each ranger, with in- 

 structions to memorize it perfectly, and, translating it into such dia- 

 lects as he might possess, to use it as the basis for public lectures or 

 informal talks. It may be delivered verbatim, or else amplified and 

 modified to meet local conditions or according to the individual ability 

 of the speaker. As a matter of fact, such modifications are almost 

 always made, and they continue to become greater and more eft'ective 

 as the rangers acquire greater practice and facility in public speaking. 

 This is highly desirable for many reasons. The ranger's interest in the 

 talks increases very largely when he feels that he is producing instead 

 of merely repeating, and his talks carry an interest and a conviction 

 that is impossible when he is merely speaking by rote. The instruc- 

 tions also provide that whenever a ranger, during the course of his 

 regular field trips, finds that he will pass the night in a certain settle- 



