The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1915-08-01


|tlarger cities, has always been con-
\ sidered the very hallmark of wealth.
Modern industry has brought conven-
H fences and Injuries one after another
within reach of moderate incomes. 1t
His not SO long since electric lights
/ and running water were considered
H perquisitos Of the wealthy, or at least
the well TO do. But now tenements
/ are equipped with these conyenienccs.
and even an automobile is no more
an indication of wealth than straw
hat
rhe summer home stands almost
alone as a distinctive mark of wealth
A villa at Newport, a bungalow in
Maine, cottage in the Berkshfres, or
a place at Bar Harbor Immediately
and rightly suggests million or some
thing near them. Yet there is nothing
| to prevent the chap with a mores,
four figure income from going to Bar
| Harbor or Newport-nothing except
that he would have to mortgage his
| life insurance and give up smoking
/ for ten years in order to buy the
smallest lot in the place. All of the
most desirable summer recreation
spots in the United States have been
monopoliztd by the aristocracy of
wealth by the simple process of max
| ing them too expensive for everyone
else. True, the man with a moderate
income can easily get a little place
in the country, and more and more OF
the mare doing so every year, but the
finest beaches and head1ands, the
mountain country where breezes are
cool and the fishing is good-all the
more desirable spots have been closed
to the masses by door that knows
no sesame but gold.
Tremendously Important.
G
makes the order of the secretary of
the interior providing for free sum
mer homes upon the national forests
so tremendously important. He has
provided that any citizen may obtain
tract of five acres upon any national
forest by paying a purely nominal
rental in the neighborhood of $40 a
year. The payment of this rental will
give him lease upon the land 10Y
thirty years. SO that he can we'll af-
fora to make such permanent inn
provements as will insure comfort for
himself and his family Neither the
land nor the permits can be bought
or sold, or in any way given none
tary value. In our great national for
ests wealth is to have no prestige. The
summer 'home-name to conjure with
is to be democratized.
The opportunities afforded by this
new executive order are probably not
appreciated by one-half Of one per
cent of American citizens. To most
of them the national forests have al
ways been something rather far away
and vague, as are most things in the
far West. They do not realize that
railroads now reach within striking
distance of the hearts of most of the
forests, and that the forest service
has laid out splendid system of
roads and trails which make the
transportation question easy. There IS
hardly western city which has not
national forest within easy reach.
More Approved.
But following the secretary's order
within a few weeks, comes the an
nouncement that more than l,2I5,O0o
acres OF wild land in the eastern
states have been approved for pur-
chase by the national forest reserVa-
ton commission. A map has been is
sued by this commission, showing
where the new forest areas are to be
scattered through the eastern noun
tain chains from Vermont to Alabama.
Within a few years these areas will be
national forests. and anyone who has
travelled over the great forest re-
serves of the West knows what that
means to the recreation seeker. II
means that road sand trails, we'll con-
structed and maintained, will be built
throughout the forests, that fish and
game and the scenic beauty will be
protected, that the marring hand of
industry will be properly restricted,
and the rights of the pleasure seeker
recognized as of paramount import
ance.
The creation of these new eastern
national forests, together with the
secretary's order, allowing free use
of lands for summer homes, means a
recreation ground for all within reach
of many of our largest cities. Thus
the Massanutten area in Virginia IS
within ninety miles of Washington, D.
IC. 1t is splendid forest in the Blue
Ridge mountains, admirably adapted
to the construction of summer homes.
officers of the forest service in Wash
ington are already planning big
communal summer establishment N
the Massanutten forests, where they
can spend their vacations and week
ends On the other side, the Monon-
gahela area is within hundred miles
of Pittsburg. Farther South, Richmond
is within striking distance of the Shen-
andoah and Natural Bridge areas.
Still farther South, in North and South
Carolina. the government has made
its heaviest purchases in the heart
of one of the finest mountain regions
in the United States. Pisgah national
forest is in the region OF Asheville
and the famous Biltmore estate. AL
ready some far-seeing persons are
making their plans to obtain summer
home rights in this, which will I'M
doubtedly be one of the most popu-
lous OF the national forest summer
colonies.
Many Advantages.
There is no need to tell the people
of the West about the advantages OF
the national forests for summer homes
or about the boon which this order
has conferred upon TEN. For many
years hundreds of thousands of them
have been going to the national for
esfs every summer Thus in the An