42 REPORT OF THE FOREST COMMITTEE 



the thing slides along 'smoothly. It is a subject we do not touch in the forestry 

 school, but it is a thing the forester and the lumberman has to learn, or he will 

 not be successful. 



The Chairman— With regard to the promotion of forestry, I have frequently 

 referred to the influence of one man, the possible effect of the work of one man, 

 in the case of Doctor J. T. Rothrock, of Pennsylvania. The work that Doctor 

 Rothrock has done is wonderful, and we have a great deal to give him credit for 

 in our expansion of forestry afterwards as a result of the work he did in the 

 early days and since then in Pennsylvania. We would be glad to hear of the 

 way different men have accomplished things. Doctor Rothrock is here and he 

 has accomplished probably more than any other man in his locality, and I would 

 like to call on him. 



Doctor J. T. Rothrock, of Pennsylvania : I think the one thing in this very 

 interesting report that appeals most strongly to me is the possible use that we 

 can make of the moving picture fad. The moving picture has immense possi- 

 bilities for good as well as for bad. In 1893, I went before the Pennsylvania 

 Legislature with an illustrated lecture, having traveled over the State for two 

 years with a buckboard and a camera for the purpose of obtaining information 

 that I could put in picture form. After the lecture was over, a gentleman, who 

 had been prominent in the opposition, came to me and said, "You may as well go 

 home, young. man, you are of no further use here. The legislature cannot kill 

 the bill that you have been asking for the appointment of a forest commission. 

 You have won fifty votes on the floor of the House of Representatives today by 

 that illustration." 



Now, if we could accomplish such work as that when forestry was simply a 

 fad, a lunacy, if you feel inclined to so call it, there is an immense amount of good 

 which can be accomplished by the moving pictures today. Today, forestry is 

 started and I believe if we were to take up this question of going over the State, 

 our own States, with the illustrations that we can derive from every State, at- 

 tending agricultural meetings, etc., and giving illustrations as to what the actual 

 condition is, a vast deal of good could be accomplished. 



Mr. Leonard Bronson, of Illinois : We have been trying to teach the lum- 

 bermen, and I do think we have made headway in that respect. 



The lumber paper has not had much of a chance to go into publicity, but it 

 has been able to go to the lumbermen, to the timber owner and the saw mill men 

 and persuade them that there is something in this game for them.! That is one 

 reason why in publicity work in the lumber business the foresters stand so close, 

 elbow to elbow, working hand in hand with the lumbermen today. That has been 

 done, not by these methods that you have to use to reach the general public, but 

 by figures, by cost sheets, and everything of that sort. 



Mr. J. E. Rhodes, of Illinois : It is my opinion that the most effective publicity 

 agency is the daily newspaper, and there are methods of reaching the public 

 through the columns of the daily newspapers without subsidizing them. The 

 trade papers, of course,_ are doing a splendid work, but they do not reach the 

 general public, which it is so necessary to reach in order to educate the people to 

 the things we want them to know. 



So far as magazine articles, and that sort of publicity are concerned, I have 

 always found that the free use of photographs, and illustrations, will carry almost 

 any article with it. The American Forestry Association is publishing the Ameri- 

 can Forestry Magazine, and from my observation of it I think it is havino- an in- 

 creasing influence. The magazine is well illustrated, and the articles are gener- 

 ally of a popular nature, which I am glad to see more widely quoted and copied 

 than they once were. This is a very important work, in fact, necessary for the 

 promotion of forestry and one to which we cannot give too much attention 



