One man with a jack-knife will build a ladder. Another with a
full tool-chest cannot make a footstool. The man with the jack-knife
will often reach the higher level. I am for the man with the jack-knife.
I believe in the man who does all he can and the best he can, with the
means at his command. That is precisely what the Forest Service has been
trying to do with the money and law Congress has placed in its hands.
Every public officer responsible for any part of the conservation of
natural resources is a trustee of the public property. If conservation
is vital to the welfare of this Nation now and hereafter, as President
Roosevelt so wisely declared, then few positions of public trust are so
important, and few opportunities for constructive work so large. Such
officers are concerned with the greatest issues which have come before
this Nation since the Civil War. They may hope to serve the Nation as
few men ever can. Their care for our forests, waters, lands, and
minerals is often the only thing that stands between the public good and
the something-for-nothing men, who, like the daughters of the
horse-leech, are forever crying, "Give, Give.
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