362 
and the people want him to do. It is a 
strange position, but I know, with all of 
the millions and millions of people talking 
about it and all shouting about it, that 
Congress is going to listen and do what 
they want — this is what they are there for, 
and they are ready and willing to do what 
the people want. And we must have 
money — unfortunately we cannot do much 
without money. You see, it depends en- 
tirely upon what the people want and what 
Congress will give. 
We must have accommodations — hotels, 
camps and roads in and about the parks, 
and we've got to have hotels and meals 
for the poor and the rich, and particularly 
the poor, because they need special care 
more than the rich. (Applause.) But if 
a person happens to come to one of the 
parks and wants to spend $100 a day for 
fun’s sake, let him spend it. But if a fel- 
low comes and has only 50 cents to spend 
a day, let’s have him stay two days if we 
can, for the fellow needs it. (Applause.) 
We want to improve the parks, and they 
have to be; and we want to call on our 
friends, like Frederick Law Olmsted, 
“Mack,” and Mark Daniels, and other gen- 
erous ones, and we want to devise and 
plan schemes for hotels and trails, and 
roads, and chalets and whatnots, so that 
they will be of service in every possi- 
ble way and yet not scare the scenery. 
(Laughter.) 
One of the most important things to be 
considered in the national parks from my 
point of view is the personnel of the corps. 
And what I am going to say is in no way 
a criticism upon the present corps. They 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
are good men, they are honest, they are 
doing the best the know how — but they 
don’t know how. They are willing to learn 
and they shall learn. I feel that we should 
have a corps in the national parks, intelli- 
gent, well-posted teachers of nature’s work- 
ings, as enthusiastic about their work as it 
is possible to get them, as enthusiastic, for 
instance, as I am ; men that your wife and 
children would enjoy because of their as- 
sociations and training. It is all right to 
have a good, strong, husky man there, 
whose only duty is — or thinks that is his 
only duty — to move a rock out of the trail 
or to cut the brush ; but that is not all. 
We want a man who is going to stay al- 
ways in the service and commune with the 
birds, the animals, and the trees and flow- 
ers, the streams and fish, and learn the 
reason for it all, so that when the visitor 
stays with the ranger who talks of these 
wonderful things of nature for a few days 
and the spirit of it all gets hold of him, 
that they will want to come again to stay. 
I can never think of national parks or 
speak of them even to my own self with- 
out recalling that wonderful man, John 
Muir. I knew him intimately for some 
twenty years, and can assure you that 
there wasn’t a thing in the great outdoors, 
with no exception, that he could not take 
in hand or look at, point out, show you, 
and explain its reason for being in the 
most fascinating way. He knew nature as 
no one else did, and, with his God, he wor- 
shipped it. His affection for the common- 
place little pine needle was as genuine as 
that for the most beautiful flower or the 
grandest tree, and the little flakes of snow 
and the little crumbs of granite were each 
to him real life, and each had a personality 
worthy of his wonderful mind's attention, 
and he talked and wrote of them as he did 
of the ousel — the squirrel — made real per- 
sons of them, and they talked and lived 
with him and were a part of his life as 
was his own flesh and blood. If we had 
such guides as John Muir, all of those one 
hundred million people would be running 
simultaneously into the parks ; they would 
be almost running over each other to hear 
the story of nature’s workings. Men with 
the knowledge and appreciation of nature 
in their souls are the kind of rangers we 
want, and we shall get them. 
I do not want to take up too much time. 
As I say, I am a novice at the game. I 
have only been in the national park service 
for fifteen days on this wonderful work. 
I have neither a desk nor a chair, nor a 
room, but I am roaming around in the In- 
terior Department building, picking up any- 
thing I can get hold of. Secretary Lake 
and Mr. Stephen T. Mather (and I’ll just 
call him “Steve,” as I did on his wonder- 
ful mountain trip through the greater 
Sequoia National Park, California, last Au- 
gust) have placed upon me the greatest 
responsibility. I am not afraid of it (Ap- 
plause) because I know I have these one 
hundred millions of people back of me, 
and I am going to co-operate with them 
all. There is not going to be any quib- 
bling one way or the other; it is going to 
be the fullest sense of co-operation, and 
with that co-operation I am going to suc- 
ceed, and I shall succeed. (Applause.) 
CONVENTION of AMERICAN ACADEMY of ARBORISTS 
The American Academy of Arborists 
held its first annual convention at Newark, 
N. J., January 8. The organization was the 
guest of the Newark Shade Tree Commis- 
sion, and the advanced work of this organ- 
ization, which has been previously described 
in Park and Cemetery, was the subject 
of interesting study in addition to the mat- 
ters brought out in a number of fine papers 
and addresses. 
The meeting was very successful and the 
Academy promises to be of great service 
to the owner of estates, to park men and 
professional arboriculturists in setting up 
a high standard of professional arboricul- 
ture in the country. The next meeting 
will be July 15 at the Zoological Park in 
New York City. 
President Frank L. Driver, of the New- 
ark Shade Tree Commission, welcomed the 
members, as follows : 
It gives me pleasure to express to you on behalf 
of the Shade Tree Commission the first word of 
Public Welcome to our City. I am glad to start 
the ball of your first Convention a-rolling. As presi- 
dent of the Newark Shade Tree Commission I wel- 
come you among us and wish you a profitable day 
in our midst. We have an efficient organization in 
this city for the protection and maintenance of 
our trees. We try to do our work so well that 
the work will become educational, but on the 
other hand we do not fail to keep up the education 
of our citizenry to the advantage of well-shaded 
streets and well-kept trees. Later on in the day 
we will have an opportunity to show you the 
results of our labors. Our Mayor, Mr. Raymond, 
was to be here this morning but unfortunately he 
has been taken sick and cannot address you. But 
in his place and as his representative we have wilh 
us Mr. Spaulding Frazer, the City Counsel. 
Mr. Spaulding Frazer, City Counsel, said : 
I very much regret that the Mayor is unable 
to be present. Yours is the first of some fifty 
National Conventions we expect to hold in this City 
this year, which is by the way the 250th birthday 
jf our City. It is a great pleasure to us that yours 
should be the first of these conventions and that 
rou honor us by spending your first birthday cele- 
bration as an organization in our midst. We are 
delighted to have you here. The work that you 
gentlemen are doing we have seen evidenced in the 
work that has been carried on here under our 
Shade Tree Commission which Commissioner Driver 
has already (not altogether modestly) been prais- 
ing. But while the Shade Tree Commissioners 
come and go, we have had for over ten years with 
us now as an actual and tangible executive, the 
secretary of that Commission, Mr. Carl Bannwart, 
and it is due to his services of that Commission 
that the work to a very great extent has been so 
successful. And when we see his associates come 
to Newark, we are always glad to say, “More 
strength to your elbow!” We hope you will find 
our parks interesting, that you will feel when you 
leave here after your Convention that Newark has 
treated you right well so that you will be glad 
to come back again. 
President Herman W. Merkel responded 
for the association as follows: 
We cannot claim credit for adding any material 
wealth in dollars and cents to the city, but we do 
add a measure of beautification and comfort and 
wealth to the cities and towns where it is our 
privilege to labor. When a great industrial city 
like Newark pauses in its commerce and manufac- 
ture to devote a portion of its resources for the 
beautification of the community by means of shade 
trees it is a sign of the times. It becomes a 
shining example to the other cities. Newark has 
done all that any city can do in the matter of 
shade trees. You have planted a larger mileage 
of streets to shade trees than any other city in the 
last ten years, you have standardized the work 
of maintenance and control to a high point of ef- 
ficiency, and you have educated the young citizens 
in the schools to the value and needs of trees. 
For these reasons we came to Newark for our first 
Convention. 
The objects of our Academy are to improve the 
public and private service in the matter of its 
trees. When the great work of the conservation 
of our city shade trees and their protection were 
first advocated it became apparent that we had 
here a new means of livelihood and occupation. 
Unfortunately for them, the poor neglected trees 
were rushed upon and there soon appeared the new 
profession of “tree surgery.” And great are the 
conscienceless crimes which have been committed 
against trees and unsuspecting individuals by these 
surgeons. At the same time a number of men scien- 
tifically trained began to struggle for the better- 
