The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-06
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. G.
Defending NATIONAL PARKS

sion, is now being fought to decide the
Question whether industry, in the form
of water power, and irrigation projects,
shall be allowed to invade the ma
these shall be kept as the unspoiled
bits of wild nature which they now
are.
At the last session the anti-national
lpark forces, in a surprise attack, tre-
mendously denied Conservation's CEN
ter by getting national parks inserted
in the water power act, and narrowly
missed a sweeping victory in last
minute defense stand on irrigation as
exciting as Horatios historic feat at
the bridge.
The national park forces, mighty
glad of a chapce to recuperate, are
now sounding the loud call to arms
far and wide. They announce their
purpose, at the next session. not only
to straighten out that big dent in their
center and recover all the ground lost
on both wings, but to dig in SO deep,
and weave the wire entanglements so
thickly, that their boundaries will be
uncrossable forever more.
Meantime, the anti-national park
forces are bringing up big guns to de-
fend their water power victory, and
assembling their irrigation armies I'M
der able and experienced generals In
congress. Also they are eagerly nego-
tiating with all possible allies.
| 40 OftIl l1ic 4chOhSlOilC.
Yet the immediate issues of the
| struggle are comparatively small. A
little group of farmers, mostly Nor
mons, living in Idaho, southwest of
| Yellowstone Park, want to put dam
in the Fails River Basin of the park,
irrigation. Another much larger
group of individuals living in the vi
cinity of Livingstone, Montana, north
of the park, want to dam up the out
let of Yellowstone Lake, SO as to con-
troll the waters of the Yellowstone
river for irrigation purposes.
Each of the projects would benefit
only the people of a local community,
and each of them, say the opponents
of the projects, is unnecessary, in that
the same results can be accomplished
without invading the parks. z
The benefits would be local, argue
these opponents, but the damage done
would be national in character. To
dam up the waters of the Yellowstone
Lake means to flood thousands of
acres of beautiful wilderness; it means
to introduce a new administrative
| force into the confines of the park.
! Likewise, to dam the waters of the
Falls River Basin would be to ruin
one of the best winter elk ranges in
| the park system, and one of the two
! strongholds of the moose in the west;
also to spoil one of the finest camping
regions just at a time when Yellow
stone patronage is leaping in immense
bounds
But this Immediate damage which
would be'done to the national treasure
| of the parks, is not nearly so inn
| portant as the precedent which would
be established. If industry is once al
| lowed to invade the parks, there will
/ be no end to the invasion. If either
of these two projects is allowed, there
will be dozens of projects in a few
! years.
Ever since the parks and national
forests were created, there has been a
| steady. consistent effort on the part of
certain interests in the west to break
them up, reduce them in size, or fail
ing in that, to invade them for indus
trial purposes. Congress has steadily
resisted that attempt. In half a CEN
| tury a hundred bills inimical to the
parks have been defeated. But little
has been heard of this struggle by the
general public.
| Robert Sterling Yard of the Ma
tional Parks association is determined
| that much shall be heard of the pres
ent attempt. He has enlisted on his
side of the fight some of the strongest
periodicals in the country. The Gen
| eral Federation of Womens Clubs has
taken up the cause and so has the Ma
tional Federation of Business and Pro-
fessional Women's Clubs. Museums,
universities, conservation associations,
| forestry schools, and variety of other
organizations and individuals are
rallying to oppose this project for the
industrialization of the National
| Parks.
The object of this formidable cam
paign is to put the issue once and for
all clearly before the public. Are the
National Parks to be kept unspoiled,
or are they to be subjected to slow
process of disintegration?
| Would Benefit Few People.
1t is. not that there is any wide
| spread demand for the Industrial utiI-
| ization of the parks The demand
fcomes from just a few people living
| near them. Nor is there anything sin
| lister or ruthless about the motives of
these people. They are farmers and
ranchmen who have lived all their lives
in the great west, and who therefore
have little appreciation of its scenic
and historical value. OF of the great
| changes which are affecting it, They
see certain bodies of water in the
parks which they could conveniently
use and they want to use them. They
are not enthusiastic about preserving
wild life and they do not appreciate
scenery. The people about Living
stone, Mont, who want to dam the
! lake, include many of those who hast
year slaughtered. about six thousand
elk as the frenzied animals dashed
across the park boundary to escape
blizzard.
The motives of these people are no
more sinister or mysterious than those
of a child who sees a pot of jam on
the shelf and reaches out his hand for
| it. Nor do they represent a much
more formidable force in the nation
than a child does in a family.
| - The danger of the situation lies in
/ the fact that their demands may be
complied with simply because the rest
of the nation is uniformed or indif-
ferent. Those who have seen and
visited the parks. who know their
charm as recreation grounds, their
wonderful character as bits of wild
America saved from civilization, are
one and all staunch defenders of the
parks. But, altho more and more
Americans are visiting the parks every
| year. the total of those who have done
so is not yet large To most Amer1-
cans they are only a name.
To make them more than a name,
to impress upon every American their
value to the nation as whole. and so