HOW TO USE THEM. 25 



HOW TO USE THEM. 

 MANAGEMENT BY THE PEOPLE. 



National Forests are made for and owned by the 

 people. They should also be managed by the people. 

 They are made, not to give the officers in charge of 

 them a chance to work out theories, but to give the 

 people who use them, and those who are affected by 

 their use, a chance to work out their own best profit. 

 This means that if National Forests are going to accom- 

 plish anything worth while the people must know all 

 about them and must take a very active part in their 

 management. The officers are paid by the people to act 

 as their agents and to see that all the resources of the 

 Forests are used in the best interest of everyone con- 

 cerned. What the people as a whole want will be done. 

 To do it it is necessary that the people carefully consider 

 and plainly state just what they want and then take a 

 very active part in seeing that they get it. 



There are many great interests on the National For- 

 ests which sometimes conflict a little. They must all be 

 made to fit into one another so that the machine runs 

 smoothly as a whole. It is often necessary for one man 

 to give way a little here, another a little there. But by 

 giving way a little at present they both profit by it a 

 great deal in the end. There must be hearty coopera- 

 tion from everyone. ; National Forests are new in the 

 United States, and the management of their vast re- 

 sources is a very difficult task. Mistakes are bound to 

 be made at first, and have been made. It is the users 

 themselves who can be of chief assistance in doing away 

 with bad methods. 



