AMERICAN FORESTRY 



133 



number of men have held on solely through loyalty to 

 the organization and faith that their situation would be 

 remedied. 



No organization, particularly one whose work requires 

 such a degree of expertness, can continue long on this 

 road without a crippling of its efficiency. Aside from 

 the actual losses in personnel, effective service cannot be 

 rendered by men who are unsettled in mind, who are find- 

 ing increasing difficulty in making ends meet, and who 

 are constantly facing the necessity of dropping their 

 chosen work in order to provide adequately for their 

 families. And the same reasons which are compelling 

 men to leave prevent recruiting the Service with new 

 employes of adequate qualifications. 



The legislator in Congress may not see the connection 

 between the resignation of an experienced forest super- 

 visor or forest ranger and an emergency expenditure of 

 thousands of dollars to stop a disastrous forest fire. But 

 the connection is there. The loss of experienced men 

 cannot but have a vital bearing upon the efficiency of 

 the whole organization, not only in stopping fires but in 

 all activities, not the least of which is giving good service 

 to the users of the National Forests. Furthermore, effi- 

 ciency and morale go together. Cripple the first and a 

 break in the second is sure to follow. 



No one has realized this situation better than Colonel 



Graves. He has been combatting it with every means at 

 his command. He has gotten the first-hand story of 

 scores of his own forest officers in the field ; and he tells 

 us that he marvels that the Forest Service has hung 

 together as long as it has. The very modest relief granted 

 by the appropriation committees in Congress this winter 

 is very far from adequate. Colonel Graves has gone as 

 far as he can, and he now in effect puts the question up 

 to the American public. 



The situation of the Forest Service, let it be repeated, 

 is but typical of our entire technical public service. The 

 question is up to the people of the United States. Follow- 

 ing the war, with the increase in Government activities 

 growing out of it, the efficiency and ideals of our public 

 service are of more vital concern to the United States 

 than ever before. Work cannot be well done unless it is 

 well remunerated. Particularly, specialized and technical 

 work cannot be well done unless the men and women 

 doing it are encouraged by the conditions of their em- 

 ployment and the opportunities for advancement to put 

 their very best into it. The right attitude of the people 

 and Government of the United States toward their public 

 services is one of the most urgent questions before us 

 today. 



COLONEL W. B. GREELEY THE NEW FORESTER 



Colonel W. B. Greeley was on March 14 appointed 

 Chief Forester of the United States to succeed Colonel 

 Henry S. Graves, and Secretary Meredith's selection will 

 be heartily approved by foresters throughout the coun- 

 try. Colonel Greeley has long been classed as one of the 

 most able men in the Forest Service. Not only is he a 

 thoroughly trained forester, but he has unusual adminis- 

 trative ability, an asset which, combined with his faculty 

 for getting practical results, is certain to make his admin- 

 istration successful. 



Colonel Greeley is from California, a graduate of the 

 University of California and the Yale Forest School, 

 and has been in the Forest Service continuously since 

 1904, except for two years of military service with the 

 American Expeditionary Forces. In the Forest Service 

 he has had long and varied administrative experience. 

 He has been advanced through all the technical grades 

 from the lowest to his present position as Assistant For- 

 ester. His first assignment was in the Southern Appa- 

 lachians. From 1906 to 1908 he was Supervisor of the 

 Sequoia National Forest in California. After a short 

 period of service in the Washington office he was ap- 

 pointed District Forester in charge of the National For- 

 ests of Montana and Northern Idaho, with headquarters 

 at Missoula, Montana. In this position it fell to him to 

 protect these forests, having a total area of over 29,000.- 

 000 acres at the time of the great fires in 1910. The 

 following year he was appointed Assistant Forester and 

 placed in charge of the Branch of Silviculture, now the 

 Branch of Forest Management, in the Washington office. 

 This branch has supervision of all National Forest tim- 

 ber sales and timber cutting, together with other impor- 

 tant lines of work. 



With the opening of the war it was decided to raise 

 and send to France forestry troops, and their recruiting 



was assigned to Colonel Greeley. To' prepare the way 

 for their operations in the French forests, the Chief 

 Forester, Colonel Graves, was sent to France and at- 

 tached to the Central Staff. One of his first steps was 

 to send for Colonel Greeley to aid in the work. After 

 Colonel Graves returned to the United States Colonel 

 Greeley took his place and finally became chief of the 

 Forestry Section in the American Expeditionary Forces, 

 in charge of 21,000 forestry troops and 95 sawmills, with 

 lumbering operations scattered from the zone of military 

 operations to the Pyrenees and from the Swiss border to 

 the Atlantic. He was awarded a decoration by the 

 French, in recognition of his war service, as a Chevalier 

 of the Legion of Honor, and by the English as member 

 of the Distinguished Order of Great Britain. Last July, 

 after nearly two years of foreign service, he was brought 

 back to the United States, and in October resumed his 

 old position in the Forest Service, but retaining a com- 

 mission as Lieutenant Colonel in the Engineer Officers' 

 Reserve Corps. He is a fellow of the Society of Ameri- 

 can Foresters, a director of the American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation, and an author of various publications and papers 

 on forestry subjects. His high professional standing, 

 broad training and experience and demonstrated capacity 

 as an executive cause him to be regarded as undoubtedly 

 the best man in the country for the position of Chief 

 Forester. 



"I consider,", said Secretary Meredith in announcing 

 his selection, "that the department is fortunate in having 

 available a man so well qualified to fill an exceptionally 

 difficult and responsible position, and I am convinced 

 that the public interests in forestry will be in good hands 

 with Colonel Greely at the head of our Forest Service." 



