A Dkcexxial Record 123 



FORESTS AND XATIOXAI. PROSPERITY 



WiUiam B. Grcclct/, Forester, U. S. Forest Service 



This inorniiig when I entered the hotel and approaehed the gen- 

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

 in the lohhy wearing this little white ribhon and said, "Be this the 

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

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

 I think ^Ir. Winslow should have capped the climax by referring to 

 the wooden coffin in Avhich most of us hope to repose our weary bones 

 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 popular 

 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 

 M'ere talking about timber, the resources of that region, and I got up 

 })efore them with a good deal of enthusiasm and talked a])out what the 

 Forest Service was going to do, what we were going to do with onr 

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

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

 dictator of tliis 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, "Young fellow, your talk sounded to me a little bit like the time 

 when tlie devil took our Eord and blaster up on high mountain and 

 showed liim all tlie domains of the Avorld and said that all of those 

 should ])e his if he would cmly do what Mr. Devil said, and the 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 



