Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-06-15
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

BY WILL p. KENNEDY.
CATIATED, surfeited and gluttet
with the shock and ruin of war
the great American people have
turned from all associations OF
war and are concentrating their at
tention on peace and getting back tc
the restfu1ness of nature untaintet
with the blast of INT and the nox.
ious gases.
The war-shamb1ed. wreckage-pieG
areas of the old world are not to be
rebuilt, as was anticipated. with the
money of American tourists. because
these tourists are going to see
America first" They are not going
to shock their senses and nervous
systems by a tour through Europe
but are going to get rest and new
appreciation of their own all-sur-
passing country by visiting the great
national parks that are the play
grounds of the American people and
which for scenic appeal have any
thing else in the world pushed clean
off the map.
Americans are going to know their
own country as never before, and the
government is now doing an impor-
tant work in arousing widespread
interest in such national self-educa-
ton
Nationwide Advertising.
The Unied States Railroad Admins
tration through nationwide ad-
vertising campaign is focusing the
thoughts of Americans-all on home
travel. on seeing the sanctuaries of
nature within the national confines.
This whole campaign for travel in
America Is centered upon the ma
tional parks, owned by the American
people. They are the headliners of
travel.
The theory is that the people own
these great estates, that there is the
most marvellous and impressive, awe
inspiring scenery in the entire
world and that every new visitor to
the national parks becomes a new
traveller in America.
As q lure, the railway administra-
tion, in cooperation with the national
parks bureau of the Interior Depart
descriptive Of these parks and illus
trated with a wealth of pictures that
call to the great out-of-doors. These
booklets are being distributed by the
hundreds of thousands and are them
sedves a contribution to American
literature and to American culture.
American Travel Library.
These books form a library on un-
United States, a complete antithesis
to Europe wrecked by refined science
gone made. The series is as follows:
Arizona and New Mexico Rockies,
California for the Tourist. Colorado
tional Park (Oregon). Glacier Ma
tional Park (Montana), Grand Canyon
National Park (Arizona). Hawaii Ma
tional Park (Hawaiian Islands). Hot
Springs National Park (Arkansas).
Mount Rainier National Park wash
ington), Northern Lakes wisconsin,
Minnesota, Upper Michigan. Illinois
and Iowa), Pacific Northwest and
Alaska. Petrified Forest National
National Park (Colorado), Sequoia
and General Grant National Parks
California;, Yellowstone National
Park (Wyoming). Yosemite National
Park California; and Zion National
The railway administration has set
mp q special bureau Of service to help
the American plan his vacation. This
bureau Is prepared to give complete
Information regarding accommodate
lions. cost and how to reach the ma
tional parks and principal resort re-
gions promptly and without charge.
1t IL acting on the theory that every
American owes himself visit to the
national parks. those vast regions of
peaks, canyons. glaciers. geysers. big
trees. volcanoes. prehistoric ruins and
other wonders.
The slogan is. Make this a summer
Df vacation travel"
10 American literature, for they have
~ Introductory chapters a special ap-
probation of each particular park
written by one of the most noted
writer's who has personally seen the
wonders and writes with the thrill
Of inspiration or awe still in the blood.
+. Secretary Lanes Invitation.
Each book carries also an invita-
zion to the American people signed
BY Secretary Lane, which says:
Uncle Sam asks you to be his guest.
places of this continent-places of
grandeur, beauty and Of wonder. He
has built roads through the deep-cut
canyons and beside happy streams.
which will carry you into these places
In comfort. and has provided lodgings
and food In the most distant and in
accessible places that you might en-
Sov Yourself and realize as little as
possible the rigors of the pioneer
travellers life These are for you
They are the Fairgrounds of the peo-
Die. To see them is to make more
hearty your affection and admiration
for America"
Charles F. Lummis. who. a third Of
q century ago, first raised the slogan,
See America First" writes of the
Grand Canyon as "a cosmic intag-
1io." saying in part:
Ten thousand pens have 'describ-
ed at this indescribable. in vain. II
Is alone in the world. The only
mountain range in captivity hun
dred miles of unearthly peaks. taller
from their gnawing river than Mount
Washington above the distant sea,
all ,countersunk in a prodigious SER
pentine gulf of living rock; a cosmic
fntaglio carved In the bosom of the
great Arizona pleateau. Nowhere else
can you look up hundreds of 1000
foot cliffs, whose tops are but three
miles from a plummet 10 your feet.
And from their rim. look down upon
euch leagues Of inverted and captive
skies-of rainbows IN solution, and
snow and thunder tennpests far below
you: and trimming fogs that flow
with the moon. and with dawn. ebb
and ebb-till one by one the white.
yojceIess tide reveals the glOrified