FORESTRY IN THE UNITED STATES 105 



be undertaken on these lands if need be by compulsion. An- 

 other group believes that by encouragement and cooperation 

 and good precedent the Federal Government can make greater 

 progress than by shaking the Big Stick. The question is still 

 unanswered but meanwhile the forests shrink before fire and 

 axe and replacement goes at a snail's pace. 



All great movements must await their time to be born. No 

 nation in the world has been ready to accept forestry until 

 grim necessity brought a realization of the need, through wood 

 scarcity and high priced timber. Early attempts at forestry 

 in the United States had been made and died without bearing 

 fruit largely because the need for forestry had not been estab- 

 lished in public consciousness. No one man, or group of men, 

 can successfully launch and carry through a great national 

 movement without the support of an awakened and enthusi- 

 astic public behind it. 



Fortunately, two great leaders in this country began preach- 

 ing forestry at a time when the nation was receptive to this 

 doctrine Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot. Both ac- 

 tive, magnetic personalities; both whole-hearted believers in 

 conservation, these two served the cause of forestry long and 

 well. Without Pinchot's genius of organization and his gift 

 of leadership, the Federal Forest Service would never have 

 become the great force for forestry that today it is. Without 

 Roosevelt's enthusiastic backing as President, the Government 

 could not have made its immense strides forward between 1900 

 and 1910. 



Helping them in their crusade was the popular interest that 

 the forestry associations had been able to arouse. Oldest of 

 these is the American Forestry Association which still exists 



