Forest Investigations in Canada 513 



performed with reasonable honesty and efficiency, results have 

 been satisfactory. Where corrupt and inefficient, revolutions 

 have commonly resulted. In the United States, however, and 

 also in Canada, the whole fabric of rigid class distinction has 

 been rejected and forms no part of the underlying principles 

 of government. Consequently, as soon as the functions of gov- 

 ernment assume a technical character, or demand qualifications 

 that are not found in every average citizen, there is no intellec- 

 tual class with a recognized right to fill the deficiency, but a 

 special class of technical government employes must be created. 

 This introduction of the trained expert into executive govern- 

 ment seems to meet special difficulties in Canada because a very 

 large element of our population is still strongly influenced by 

 the fear of establishing a governing class, while another large 

 element has not yet realized the consequences resulting from a 

 society without such a class, and there is as yet no large element 

 of our population accustomed to the employment of the technical 

 expert in government activities. Further, the introduction of 

 the forest expert into Canadian government forest administra- 

 tion meets very special difficulties because the forestry expert 

 is almost a pioneer both as a technical expert and as a practi- 

 tioner of an art that is nowhere else established in the self- 

 governing portions of the British Empire. 



Must Shoulder Heavy Responsibility 



To sum up, therefore, the Canadian forester has a heavy 

 double responsibility. He must on the one hand convince the 

 nation of the vital connection that exists between national pros- 

 perity and the conservation of forest resources, and, on the other, 

 he must demonstrate his fitness for handling the nation's forests 

 in an efficient manner. To do the first he must have ample and 

 accurate information of actual forest conditions throughout the 

 country. This the Forestry Branch plans to furnish him. To 

 accomplish the second he must be given much greater powers 

 over the forest personnel than is the case anywhere in Canada 

 today. It is not so easy to suggest a way to bring this about, 

 but every forester in Canada who has had an opportunity to 

 compare a politically appointed personnel with a non-political 

 personnel realizes that the elimination of politics from the ques- 



