A Dkchnxial Kkcouj) 123 



FORKSTS AND XATIOXAI. PROSPKKITY 



IVillidfu B. Grci'lc//, Forester, U. S. Forest Service 



This morning when I entered the hotel and ajjproaclied the gen- 

 tleman in charge of the check rooms he pointed to a group of gentlemen 

 in the lohby wearing tliis little white ribl)on and said, "Be this the 

 undertakers' convention f' I said, "Xo, sir. this is a convention of 

 woodusers." Then, "Well, them undertakers use lots of wood." So 

 I think ]Mr. Winslow should have capped the climax by referring to 

 the wooden coffin in wliich most of us hojje to repose oin- Aveary Iwnes 

 after the game has been played to the last goal. 



Someone has suggested to me that I am supposed to make a key- 

 note speech tonight. I know that keynote speeches are ])()pular 

 pastime this summer, but I want to assure you that I have no keynote 

 ambitions. In fact, judging from the experience that I have just come 

 from — I think the very last speech I made prior to this — I come to 

 you in a very humble frame of mind. I was talking to a group of 

 ranchers, road builders, etc., out on one of our Colorado forests. We 

 were talking about timber, the resources of that region, and I got up 

 before them with a good deal of enthusiasm and talked about what the 

 Forest Service was going to do, what rve Avere going to do with our 

 timber, with our Mater power, our grazing lands, etc., and really, I 

 suppose gave the impression that I possibly was the sole owner and 

 dictator of this vast public domain. Well, after the ceremonies were 

 over one of the old-timers, a man who had grown up in that country 

 since early boyhood, in the audience approached me. The "my" and 

 "our" in my speech had not set just right on the old man's system. He 

 said. "YounsT fellow, vour talk sounded to me a little bit like the time 

 when the devil took our T.ord and blaster up on higli mountain and 

 showed him all the domains of the world and said tliat all of those 

 should be his if he would only do what Mr. Devil said, and tlie durned 

 old coot did not own a single acre of it." 



There is no occasion for keynote speeches. The things that have 

 brought us together are the simple fundamental things and the sort of 



