32 THE TREE PLANTERS OF AMERICA 



PUBLIC OPINION 



R. A. Long, President The Long-Bell Lumber Company, Kansas 



City, Mo. 



The plan appeals to me as most practical, and I believe if put 

 into effect will create an interest on the part of the boys of our 

 land in the subject that otherwise they would not give consideration, 

 and, besides, I believe such a movement will inspire patriotism, and 

 hence I shall be very glad indeed to see it made effective. 



Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa, Cal. 



I am heartily in sympathy in having the children learn the value 

 of trees, how to grow them, their names, habits and qualities, and 

 I think the plan which you have laid out is of great importance; 

 more to the children than can be estimated just now. On the care 

 of the trees depends their prosperity in the future, so not only for 

 their own benefit in preserving and increasing the forests and wood 

 and timber supply, but the discipline which they will receive in com- 

 pensation for their interest, will a thousand times repay them. 



Edwin Chamberlain, Vice-President The San Antonio Loan and 

 Trust Company, San Antonio, Texas. 



The tree-planting movement promises to be of incalculable bene- 

 fit to the country, for various reasons. 



It is along the line of reforestation so extensively carried out 

 in Europe and Asia, under the British regime, with the added advan- 

 tage here, that instead of a service of paid forest rangers and 

 foresters, this would enlist the membership and activities of practi- 

 cally the whole rural population and it need not be limited neces- 

 sarily to the rural. 



From the conservation standpoint, the idea is a very grandly 

 useful one. But, even deeper and farther than the line of economic 

 industrial value, through the asset of the trees themselves, goes the 

 benefit to be derived from the effect of this training on the characters 

 of the young, our future citizens; give a boy something to do that 

 he can accomplish "all by himself;" inspire him with the spirit of 

 creating, instead of that of destruction; endow him with a sense of 

 responsibility; make him feel that he is doing a thing which will 

 benefit, not merely himself and his associates, but all future hu- 

 manity ; give him to understand that he is doing his part "pushing 

 his pound" towards the welfare of his country, and you have laid 

 the foundations for a pretty good and useful citizenship. 



