STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 115 



was rapidly accumulated. The special knowledge 

 gained was made public in printed bulletins ; and at 

 the same time the Bureau undertook, through the 

 newspaper and periodical press, to make all the peo- 

 ple of the United States acquainted with the needs 

 and the purposes of practical forestry. It is doubt- 

 ful whether there has ever been elsewhere under the 

 Government such effective publicity publicity pure- 

 ly in the interest of the people at so low a cost. 

 Before the educational work of the Forest Service 

 was stopped by the Taf t Administration, it was se- 

 curing the publication of facts about forestry in 

 fifty million copies of newspapers a month at a to- 

 tal expense of $6,000 a year. Not one cent has ever 

 been paid by the Forest Service to any publication of 

 any kind for the printing of this material. It was 

 given out freely, and published without cost because 

 it was news. Without this publicity the Forest Ser- 

 vice could not have survived the attacks made upon 

 it by the representatives of the great special inter- 

 ests in Congress; nor could forestry in America 

 have made the rapid progress it has. 



"The result of all the work outlined above was 

 to bring together in the Bureau of Forestry, by the 

 end of 1904, the only body of forest experts under 

 the Government, and practically all of the first-hand 

 information about the public forests which was then 

 in existence. In 1905, the obvious foolishness of 

 continuing to separate the foresters and the forests, 

 reinforced by the action of the. First National For- 



