Let a good man alone. Give him his head. Nothing will hold him so rigidly to his work as the feeling that he is trusted. Lead your men in their work, and above all make of your organization not a monarchy, limited or unlimited, but a democracy, in which the responsibility of each man for a particular piece of work shall not only be defined but recognized, in which the credit for each man's work, so far as possible, shall be attached to his own name, in which the opinions and advice of your subordinates are often sought before decisions are made; in a word, a democracy in which each man feels a personal responsibility for the success of the whole enterprise.
The young Forester may be years removed from the chance to apply these principles in practice, but since no superior officer can put them into fruitful effect without the coöperation of his subordinates, it is well that they should be known at both ends of the line.
I repeat that whether a Forester is engaged in private work or in public work, whether he is employed by a lumberman, an association of lumbermen, a fishing and shooting club, the owner of a great estate, or whether he is an officer of a State or of the Nation, by virtue of his profession he is a public servant. Because he deals with the forest, he has his hand upon the future welfare of his country. His point of view is that which must control its future welfare. He represents the planned and orderly development of its resources. He is the representative also of the forest school from which he graduates, and of his profession. Upon the standards which he helps to establish and maintain, the welfare of these, too, directly depends.
The work of the States in forestry is still in the pioneer stage, and the work of a State Forester must still bear largely on the creation of a right public sentiment in forest matters. In State forestry the need for agitation has by no means passed. It is often the duty of the State Forester to prepare or endeavor to secure the passage of good State forest laws, or to interpose against the enactment of bad laws. In particular, much of his time is likely to be given to legislation upon the subjects of forest fires and forest taxation. Upon the latter there is as yet no sound and effective public opinion in many parts of the United States, and legislatures and people still do not understand how powerful bad methods of forest taxation have been and still are in forcing the destructive cutting of timber by making it impossible to wait for the better methods of lumbering which accompany a better market. I have known the taxes on standing timber to equal six per cent. a year on the reasonable value of the stumpage.