816 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



trained foresters, although only in a small minority of cases is this 

 required by law plain evidence that the desirability of placing the 

 work in the hands of professional foresters has been generally recog- 

 nized. Some States make legislative provision for a chief fire warden 

 under the State forester. Where the position is not specifically 

 created by law, the typical organization of the work of his department 

 set up by the State forester usually places one man in general charge, 

 under him, of the protection activity. A functional staff organization 

 in the State forester's office with specialists in charge of the several 

 lines of work is customarily supplemented by a territorial organiza- 

 tion under which the State is divided into districts, each with a dis- 

 trict forester in immediate charge, in varying degree, of all the activi- 

 ties of the Department within his territory. This general form of 

 organization corresponds closely with that of the Forest Service for 

 the entire country, and has pretty well established itself as the most 

 effective type of set-up where the work has attained important 

 dimensions, with diversified activities. The local wardens or rangers, 

 lookout men, and other members of the field protective organization 

 are under the direct supervision of the district foresters, who should 

 generally so far as possible be men of professional training. 



As in any private business, the efficiency and competence of a State 

 forestry organization is determined by the efficiency and competence 

 of its chief executive within the limits of the possibilities afforded by 

 the resources at his command and the conditions with which he is 

 confronted. Nothing is more important than a machinery of organi- 

 zation likely to obtain a State forester who, in addition to being a 

 technically trained man of good experience, has the initiative, energy, 

 sound judgment, ability to lead and to inspire confidence, and other 

 qualities essential for a successful executive. This is a matter, first, 

 of selection, and secondly, of oversight. There must, of course, be 

 oversight, to assure that the responsibilities of the position are fully 

 met, and means of bringing about a change where the best interests of 

 the work call for a change of leadership. How to obtain in the admin- 

 tration of public enterprises high-grade executive ability and how to 

 provide for a proper oversight of the way in which responsibilities 

 are discharged is one of the problems of government. 



The greatest obstacle to more satisfactory conditions is the degree 

 to which divided purposes enter into the administration of the public 

 activities. In the struggle of contending parties, groups, and indi- 

 viduals for political power the use of offices, of the public payroll, and 

 of administrative courses and decisions as aids in gaining or holding 

 power is bound to take place unless there are restraining forces or 

 bars. Hence the development of devices designed to enable adminis- 

 tration to be carried on with as much separation as possible from politi- 

 cal considerations in the narrow meaning of the term. Essentially, 

 they are devices to protect the public against political racketeering. 

 Civil service laws to insure the filling of positions on a basis of merit, 

 the elimination of incompetent employees, and the protection of all 

 incumbents against dismissal, demotion, or failure to receive advance- 

 ment on other grounds than the efficiency of the work are one of the 

 devices to this end. 



There use in State governments is, as a rule, rather limited. 

 Whether or not they are used, they do not obviate the need for some 

 means of obtaining accountability of the man at the head of an organ- 



