| Show mom tu nc ff L 64 chi amt t A S OA AN LA U r ION j of 1923 operine evoked t fa C mow policy of V ot complete for our national parka kr 71 bi JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN 10 lo t HE national parks lost a good friend when warren G harding sa s1 R died ills appreciation and ap of the national park move ment were signally shown at ills av 1923 opening of yellowstone for its fifty first year by an official declaration of administration policy worthy of its place as the first national park in all history and largest and most famous of all americas nineteen public play bounds grounds Toun ds set apart by congress for the use of the people forever that official declaration ot of ad policy was nothing less than absolute protection of the national park system against commercial invasion and exploitation dr john wesley bealey nui hill chancellor of lincoln university made the declaration ile he officially represented president harding and secretary of the interior work at the yellowstone Tellow stone opening hla his statement was prepared careful and emphatic it contained the following and we are here today to celebrate the annu annual ill opening of yellowstone park the largest and most far famed of our national parks a wooded wilderness of three thousand three hundred square ralles miles containing incomparable waterfalls more geysers tey sers than are found in the rest of the world all put together irrigated by rivers like miniature lakes and beautified by lakes like inland seas carved by canyons of sublimity decorated with colors defying the painters art punctured with innumerable boiling ephings whose steam mingles mingle with fleecy clouds stuccoed coed with vast areas of pe petrified trIfled forests a sanctuary of safe retreat retreat for feathered songsters song and wild beasts a wonderland playground sanitarium and university au all in one where the eye feasts upon the riotous coore of flowers ferns and rocks the ear Is surged with the symphony of melodious sounds bounds the mind Is sated rated with a thousand revelations of truth and beauty and the jaded body weary alb the trudge of thought and toll and travel for song and dance beneath the shadows of the everlasting hills bills yellowstone history Is replete with crises where the friends of the park nod and the park idea have bad to tight fight with a heroism worthy its explorers and discoverers to retain it intact against the bold and presumptuous claims of the advocates of special privilege determined to commercialize this land of wonder to build railroads through it tunnel its mountains dam its likes lake end and streams and secure stranglehold strangle hold monopolies with small compensation to the government and total loss to the people arid and regardless of all facts and figures appeals and threats therefore any plan however meritorious on its face for the commercial exploits von of parks must by the very nature of its ita alms and purposes be immediately doomed to failure good projects bad projects indifferent projects all must face the same fate for it Is at last established policy of the government that our national mat lonal parks must and shall forever be maintained in absolute unimpaired form not only for the present but for nil all time to come a policy which has the unqualified support of president li arding this Is the fixed policy of the administration and I 1 can assure you it will not be modified it will not be swerved a hairs breadth by any influence ence financial political or otherwise it if rights are granted to one claimant others nut follow so a precedent must not be established it would inevitably ruin the entire national park system doctor hill might have been more definite in the matter of the attacks by commercial interests upon yellowstone since early in 1020 it has required increasing vigilance and aggressive organized effort on the part of the vast army of mat national ional park enthusiasts to defeat these thes attacks attack during the and spring of 1920 the sixty sixth congress nearly passed the smith bill creating a commercial irrigation reservoir in the southwest corner of yellowstone Yellow atone for the benefit of idaho and it did pass the water power bill training granting to a commission power to lease public waters water including those of the national parks park and tor for water power A national organization of defense about strong was quickly effected the smith bill was as killed in iia the house alter after it had bad passed the senate the jones esch bill exempting national parks present and future from the jurisdiction of the water power commission was introduced and forced for forward Nard the water power interests were mere powerful enough however to force a compromise amendment which exempted only the existing national parks the jones esch bill was passed by the sixty sixth congress in december of 1920 senator walsh of I 1 montana championed a bill to dam yellowstone yellow stone lake for an irrigation scheme in montana A long and hard fought battle followed in june of 1921 secretary of the interior fall reported on the bill and straddled on the question of protection holding bolding that power and irrigation development in the national parks parka should be only on specific authorization of congress the works to be constructed and controlled by the federal government thereupon senator walsh proposed a new bill providing that the united states reclamation service should build and operate the yellowstone take lake dam the defenders of the park proved that the dam could be built to greater advantage outside the park rn in 1922 the upholders of the parks won a victory by electing scott leavitt in montana to congress over jerome locke originator of the dam project the final result of the fight was that the sixty seventh congress adjourned march 4 1923 leaving the walsh dam in the committees pigeonholes efforts to revive it are expected in the sixty eighth congress during these three years another victory of great importance along the same line was the smothering in committee of the all year national park bill personally dratted drafted and sponsored by secretary fall this bill created a national park in the mescalero Mes ealero indian reservation in new mexico out of several insignificant spots widely separated plus an irrigation and power reservoir ninety miles away it would have introduced both water power and irrigation into the national park system there was a nationwide nation wide protest against this bill in which new mexico itself took an active part tire the bill Is too dead it to Is believed to be resuscitated A third victory called nationwide nation wide attention to another danger that threatened and still threatens the national parks the victory was wag the defeat of the slemp bill creating the appalachian national park out of a virginia mountain top it was opposed on the ground that the area was wa below the proper national park quality it was favored by secretary fall who in his report to the public lands committee bald that his big policy was to substitute a aide open recreational park system of many small email playgrounds for our historic national park system the late franklin K lane as secretary of the interior in 1918 nailed down doan this plank in the national park platform in studying new park project you should seek geek to find and scenery enery Bc of supreme and distinctive quality or some conr natural feature so 0 o extraordinary or unique as to be of 0 national interest and importance the national park system a an now constituted should not be lowered in jandard tan dard dignity and prestige by the inclusion cluelon In 0 of f areas chiah express in lose less than the highest term the particular class or kind of exhibit which they represent president la ardIng was the first president to announce publicly it general administration policy of absolute conservation for the national parks system and for all of its ita units both roosevelt and tatt taft were good friends of the national parks but preservation against commercial invasion was not a question in their days president wilson in his hl first term signed the retch hetch hetchy betchy bill giving san francisco the water supply reservoir in yosemite which has just been completed its it ecret secret water power purpose was wa not then generally understood president wilson however stood by the national parks loyally and powerfully in the light fight to exempt them from the jurisdiction of the water power commission a president harding in announcing this administration policy was not anticipating a popular demand so much as answering it the truth Is that the american people have within the last three years adopted our nineteen national parks as a part of their conception of the greatness of their nation hands off boffl I 1 applies to the national parks as well as to old glory they are eager to defend them and to keep them inviolate and they have developed organized strength through the affiliation of a dozen or so nationwide nation wide organizations izat ions to see that congress shall legislate wisely concerning the national parks the announcement of the conservation policy was received with nationwide nation wide nide delight the national park enthusiasts hoped that the conservation policy would be broadened to uphold secretary lanes important plank yellowstone also gets into the limelight this season because president harding paid it a two days visit on his big way to alaska the presidents President 8 party went in and out through the north entrance and did about miles of motoring in seeing various points of interest on the continental divide they drove through snowbanks the president went yachting on yellowstone lake he saw many wild animals ahlm fed gingerbread and molasses to a black bear and her cub he saw the painted terraces Terrace of mammoth hot springs old faithful geyser spouted 15 feet into the air every sixty five minutes for hirn him as it does for every visitor the photograph reproduced herewith shows shown the president and mrs harding under escort of superintendent horace M albright viewing from artist point the grand canyon of the yellowstone Tellow stone and the lower falls the president ws visibly impressed by the sig sight lit one of the grandest and most beautiful in the world just sixty three years 1807 1870 were required to put yellowstone on the te map the american people simply believe there was any such place the lewis and dark clark expedition of 1804 08 06 passed close by it but the indians never mentioned it considering it the abode of evil spirits who punished all talk about them john colter a member of the party who went back to trap beaver discovered it in 1807 upon his big return to st louis in 1810 the people dubbed it coaters Col hell and laughed him and his tale out of court james bridger rediscovered it about isis 1828 and the public said just another of jim bridgers big yarns the gold prospectors 0 of 1802 1862 described it and were set down as liars I 1 took the washburn langford expedition of 1870 t make tire the people believe in its wonders the me bers of that expedition were for preempting pre empting the scenic points and making their fortunes cornellus cornelius hedges rebuked them and proposed tho the national park plan the first in all history the park was established by act of congress in lari and yellowstone celebrated its aerni last fall fail yellowstone Tellow stone contains aw square miles in wyoming in montana and 80 in idaho big as it Is tho the plan Is to enlarge it by the addition of many square miles to the south the jackson jackion I 1 role hole country which contains jackson lake I 1 and the teton teon mountains and ad is a natural part pan ot I ha part park J 1 |
