FORESTRY — GRAVES. 269 



into a universal table expressed in board feet, which is the measure 

 peculiar to this country. 



There is another contribution of which I am somewhat hesitant to 

 speak, for it is not a contribution to pure science, if by science is 

 meant only the physical or natural sciences. Since, however, it 

 touches the interests of a large number of people, I may be forgiven 

 if I say a few words about it. It is a contribution to what one 

 economist has aptly called the " science of social engineering." The 

 transfer of the forest reserves in 1905 to the Department of Agricul- 

 ture marked a new departure in the national economic life. It 

 recognized the new principle that the Nation's resources should be 

 managed by the Nation and directly in the interests of the whole 

 people; it recognized that these resources should be developed col- 

 lectively rather than individually and indirectly. Nearly 10 years 

 have now passed since the inauguration of this policy. The record 

 of what has been accomplished and the manner in which many of 

 the problems have been approached and solved must unquestionably 

 be considered a contribution to the methods by which similar prob- 

 lems may be handled by the Nation in the future. In the adminis- 

 tration of the national forests there is being developed gradually 

 what I believe to be a truly scientific sj^stem for attaining a concrete 

 economic end, a system of controlling certain correlated industries 

 with a single purpose in view — the maximum of the welfare of the 

 Nation as a whole. In spite of many mistakes which we have un- 

 doubtedly made and which we have attempted to correct as we went 

 along, in spite of the lack of practice and experience in solving the 

 problems at hand, this new policy, it seems to me, has already proved 

 to be entirely safe and workable. 



