My Dear Mr. Garland:--You have been kind enough to let me see the proofs
of _Cavanagh: Forest Ranger_. I have read it with mingled feelings--with
keen appreciation of your sympathetic understanding of the problems which
confronted the Forest Service before the Western people understood it, and
with deep regret that I am no longer officially associated with its work
(although I am as deeply interested, and almost as closely in touch as
ever).
The Western frontier, to the lasting sorrow of all old hunters like
yourself, has now practically disappeared. Its people faced life with a
manly dependence on their own courage and capacity which did them, and
still does them, high honor. Some of them were naturally slow to see the
advantages of the new order. But now that they have seen it, there is
nowhere more intelligent, convinced, and effective support of the
Conservation policies than in the West. The establishment of the new order
in some places was not child's play. But there is a strain of fairness
among the Western people which you can always count on in such a fight as
the Forest Service has made and won.
The Service contains the best body of young men I know, and many splendid
veterans. It is nine-tenths made up of Western men. It has met the West on
its own ground, and it has won the contest--an episode of which you have
so well described--because the West believes in what it stands for.
I have lived much among the Western mountain men. I have studied their
problems; differed with some of them, and worked with many of them.
Sometimes I have lost and sometimes I have won, but every time the fight
was worth while. I have come out of it all with a respect and liking for
the West which will last as long as I do.
Very sincerely yours,
Gifford Pinchot.
March 14, 1910.
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