Canadian Forestry Journal, July, 1915. 



13/ 



Publicity— The Right Arm of Forestry 



"Public education is the chief mea- 

 sure of progress in forestry. 



' ' This is not conjecture. It has been 

 proved. Progress differs locally al- 

 most exactly with the degree in which 

 propaganda has been skilful. 



' ■ To get a large proportion of our 

 population interested in forest affairs 

 we should adopt methods that experi- 

 ence has proved most effectual in get- 

 ting its interest in anything else. 



' ' Why devote a forestry convention 

 to discussion of needed laws and prac- 

 tice and go home with no more knowl- 

 edge of how to make your community 

 let you apply them?" 

 ■ — {From report of Suh-committee on 

 Publicity, Fifth National Conserva- 

 tion Congress, Washington.) 



Publicity is perhaps the strongest 

 Aveapon which an institution such as 

 the Canadian Forestry A.ssociation 

 may wield. Conventions, generating a 

 peculiar power as they undoubtedly 

 do. fail to duplicate the twelve- 

 months' power of newspaper and 

 magazine publicity. AVhere ten Cana- 

 dians come within the influence of a 

 convention, ten thousand may be 

 linked to forest conservation through 

 the printed page. This fact is now 

 generally recognized by all United 

 States associations having aims simi- 

 lar to our own. It is the function 

 alone of the newspaper and the week- 

 ly and monthly magazine to take the 

 wisdom and zeal of the assembly hall, 

 the arguments and prophecies of fore- 

 sighted citizens, the truths demon- 

 strated by expert foresters and scat- 

 ter them along the country conces- 

 sions and thrust them into the hands 

 of the most inert dweller of town and 

 city. Twelve-months-in-the-year pub- 

 licity can multiply a single voice until 

 it talks to a continent. 



During the months of ^Nlay. June, 

 and the first part of July. Canadian 

 editors have generously co-operated 

 with the Secretary of the Canadian 

 Forestry Association in publishing 

 about thirty special articles, many of 

 them well illustrated. 



These publications include, among 

 others, Industrial Canada ; Mac- 

 lean's ^Magazine ; ^Monetary Times; 

 Western Luml:!erman ; Canada Lum- 

 berman ; Busy East ; Farm and 

 Dairy: Canadian Pictorial; Farmers' 

 Advocate ; Montreal Herald ; ^lont- 

 real Gazette : Alontreal Witness ; To- 

 ronto News ; Ottawa Citizen ; Ottawa 

 Free Press ; Ottawa Journal ; the Wil- 

 son Syndicate, and many more, in- 

 cluding several young people's publi- 

 cations such as ' East-and-West ' and 

 'Onward.' official papers of the 

 Presbyterian and Methodist Sunday 

 Schools. Titles of articles included 

 •The Forests and the Fire Thief; 

 'Forests and Water Powers of On- 

 tario'; 'The Tragedy of Misused 

 Lands': 'Campers and Forest Fires'; 

 •The Fight to Save the Forests'; 'The 

 Woodlot — A True Friend of the Far- 

 mer'; 'Do the Forests Hold the Key 

 to Maritime Prosperity?'; 'Fake Set- 

 tlers and Forest Fires'; 'The Problem 

 of Settlers' Slash', etc.. while the arti- 

 cles in the children's magazines dealt 

 with the work of the forest ranger, 

 how fires are fought, what damage is 

 done and who pays for that damage, 

 all such contributions being brighten- 

 ed with photographs. 



Particularly gratifying has been 

 the assurance of numbers of influen- 

 tial Canadian editors that they stood 

 ready to co-operate with the Canadian 

 Forestry Association in disseminating 

 knowledge of forest problems and 

 helping towards a public awakening. 



