American Forest Congress 393 



become permanent. Timber, water, grass, minerals, 

 are all to be open to the conservative and continued 

 use of the people. They must be used, but they must 

 not be destroyed. 



This policy of use cannot be carried out with success 

 unless the personnel of the Forest Service is of a high 

 standard. It is of the first importance that every 

 forest officer should be honest, intelligent, well in- 

 formed in forest matters, physically active, and full of 

 the right kind of interest in his work. Such interest 

 is impossible unless the work offers a man a permanent 

 career. That is why promotions to the higher posi- 

 tions in the Forest Service will invariably be made 

 from the lower positions, when suitable men are avail- 

 able. 



It is along these principal lines that the Forest Ser- 

 vice will endeavor to make itself valuable to the nation. 

 By deciding local questions promptly on local grounds, 

 by opening all the resources of the reserves to rea- 

 sonable use, and by the gradual creation of an effective 

 staff of honest and interested public servants the Forest 

 Service itself should become one of the really useful 

 public agencies of the United States. 



Vastly important as the national forests are, we must 

 recognize that the bulk of our forests are now, and 

 must always remain, in the hands of private owners; 

 that it is only as the private owner, large or small, be- 

 comes interested in forestry and carries out its practical 

 principles, that we shall succeed in introducing forestry 

 into the United States. It should be remembered by 

 every forester, and every man interested in forestry, 

 that the woodlands in farms are about three times as 

 great in extent as all the national forest reserves, and 

 that the reserves are almost insignificant when com- 

 pared with the vast area of timberland which is owned 



