The Point of View 3 



forestry. I have personally talked with a number of technically 

 trained men, after five or more years' work on the public forests, 

 who contend that their technical training was useful in getting 

 them by the civil service examinations, but they see little further 

 use for it. These men have lost their point of view and have been 

 won over by those who see nothing but administration in the 

 care and development of our public forests. Let me tell you, 

 these men are out of the race. I am glad to say that most men 

 trained in forestry have not lost their point of view. The infinite 

 variety of administrative duties — building trails, stringing tele- 

 phone wires, and fighting fires — has not obstructed the clear light 

 ahead. They see the normal forest ahead — it may be one hundred 

 or two hundred years. With this ideal to work toward, however, 

 they are in the race and must inevitably become the constructive 

 force in the upbuilding of forestry on this continent. 



I was told the other day by one who should know that, taking 

 American foresters as a whole, their greatest defect is the lack 

 of the scientific spirit, their imperfect knowledge of the forest — its 

 natural history, its growth and development and the lack of 

 appreciation that this knowledge lies at the very foundations of 

 forestry. 



Let me tell you this. From now onward the technically trained 

 man with unwarped vision will have more and more opportunity 

 to apply his technical knowledge. The day of the non-technical 

 man as a directive and operative force in American forestry 

 is going to disappear, and it will be for the great good of forestry 

 when it does. I beg of you to remember that forestry is a pro- 

 fession — a profession that has for its foundation scientific facts 

 and laws, a profession that has for its guiding star a normal 

 forest. We may never attain it. We cannot be foresters in the 

 true sense unless we accept this ideal and work toward it. 



The great car which is now moving across the country carry- 

 ing the forestry of today into the forestry of the future is 

 equipped with both drive wheels and dummy wheels. The former 

 make the car go, the latter the car makes go. I cannot help but 

 believe that the drive wheels of this car must be welded from 

 sound judgment, gleaned from the broad field of thorough tech- 

 nical knowledge, and tempered by practical experience. All the 

 tempering in the world will not make the drive wheel unless the 

 metal has been properly wrought to begin with, 



