254 Presidential Addresses 



far more rapidly than they are being produced. The 

 situation is a grave one, and there is but one remedy. 

 That remedy is the introduction of practical forestry 

 on a large scale, and of course that is impossible 

 without trained men; men trained in the closet and 

 trained by actual field work, under practical condi 

 tions. You will have created a new profession; a 

 profession of the highest importance; a profession 

 of the highest usefulness toward the State ; and you 

 are in honor bound to yourselves and to the people 

 to make your profession stand as high as the pro 

 fession of law, as the profession of medicine, as any 

 other profession most intimately connected with our 

 highest and finest development as a nation. You are 

 engaged in pioneer work in a calling whose opportu 

 nities for public service are very great. Treat the 

 calling seriously ; remember how much it means for 

 the country as a whole; remember that if you do 

 your work in crude fashion, if you only half learn 

 your profession, you discredit it as well as your 

 selves. Give yourselves every chance by thorough 

 and generous preparation and by acquiring not only a 

 thorough knowledge, but a wide outlook over all the 

 questions on which you have to touch. The pro 

 fession which you have adopted is one which touches 

 the Republic on almost every side, political, social, 

 industrial, commercial; and to rise to its level you 

 will need a wide acquaintance with the general life 

 of the Nation, and a viewpoint both broad and high. 

 Any profession which makes you deal with your fel- 

 lowmen at large makes it necessary that, if you are 



