90 An American Forest Administration. [274 



from the lumber camp, yet capable of learning for- 

 estry principles. But the directive administration 

 should command experts capable of preventing, from 

 the start, misdirection in technical detail, and of 

 evolving in time a suitable system of forest manage- 

 ment, gradually educating the whole force to its 

 teachings. Such expert advisers, if they cannot be 

 found in this country, can be had abroad, and some 

 will be found among us here by the time they are 

 needed. 



There is one other objection to the practicability 

 of the proposed administration urged on the score, 

 not of measures, but of men. 



Here, again, we can discern between the real and 

 the imagined difficulty. 



To do efficient service and none other is desir- 

 able I estimate that for, say, 50,000,000 acres of 

 government timber lands, from one to two thousand 

 active, reliable guards, and 500 resident managers, 

 all men of special capacity and sound judgment, are 

 necessary. Can they be found ? I believe that, if 

 paid in proportion to the service rendered, and not, 

 as is the rule with government service in general, 

 expected to be satisfied with eking out their income 

 by outside work and incidental favors, they can be 

 found. 



The imagined difficulty, and the objection raised 

 upon it, comes from those who imagine the govern- 

 ment as something outside and inimical to them- 

 selves, and every government officer a leech upon the 

 public treasury, an obstacle between themselves and 

 their individual happiness, an element of friction. 

 For a self-governing American, such objection, while 

 containing an element of truth, seems rather morbid 



