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Show COMMERCIALIZING SCENERY The average American is rapidly approaching the state where he takes his enjoyment of scenery in much the same fashion as he takes his exercise, 'has his iron today', or sets aside part of his time for perfunctory enjoyment of the esthetic. The way is all mapped for him, cut and dried, to fit in with his methodical and businesslike habits. Nothing is more painful to those who can enjoy life in the environment in which they normally live, than to overhear over-hear two tourists discussing the grandeurs of this or that, "have you seen this," or, "but you must visit that," and "I must take a side-trip and take in that." Time is carefully parceled out, and the tourist puts on his glasses of colored lenses, looks at one of nature's wonderlands for a few minutes, min-utes, compares it with the beauties of the Lakes of Killar-ney, Killar-ney, the Garden of the Gods, or other places he has seen, then hustles away ' to the next objective. And some of the towns and cities along the way to these beauty spots indicate that their sole right to exist is based upon their locations; that their business men perform no other service to their communities than to condescend to supply the tourists from lands remote with the necessities necessi-ties of life, and are audibly annoyed when the flow of traffic diminishes for a few days. Nature's wonders were worth looking at before the day when one could ride through parks on cinder bridle paths, or could gaze into lakes and forests from the shelter of a tourists' inn where gleaming silver-ware and after-dinner dancing scarcely fit with the surroundings given by nature. We would not cry to high heaven if roads were built across states to fill the needs of the people who lived along them; if all business men and shop keepers became imbued with the idea of service to their communities; and if towns based their worth on what their surrounding fields could offer to the home builder rather than to the transient. Then perhaps, in this Utopia of ours, fruit and hot-dog stands would be replaced by permanent stores, and towns would be founded on the rock of stable industry. And maybe in ten years' time, a fellow could go fishing and catch some fish. |