The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1923-09-14

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1928 Opening ENoke5
Administration Policy Of 4
Complete Conservation I
for Our National Parks \
BY JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN
WMA HE national parks lost a good
@H friend when Warren G. Harding
y, #N died. His appreciation and APP
~WN proval Of the national park move
m Mo. ment were signally shown at the
" ASIW 1923 opening Of Yellowstone for
T. z1RyZS. its ffty-frst year by an official
"T@HHl declaration Of administration pol
~ AlSS1 icy worthy Of its place as the first
- national park in all history and
d4a8GH largest and most famous of all
Americas nineteen public play
grounds set apart by congress for the use Of the
people forever. That official declaration of adj
ministration policy was nothing less than absolute
protection Of the national park system against
commercial Invasion and exploitation.
DR.. John Wesley Hill, chancellor OF Lincoln
Memorial university, made the declaration. lie
officially represented President Harding and Sec
rotary Of the Interior Work at the Yellowstone
opening. His statement was prepared. careful
and emphatic. 1t contained the following:
sand we are here today +. to celebrate the
annual opening Of Yellowstone park, the largest
and most far-famed of our national parks, wooded
wilderness Of three thousand three hundred square
miles, containing Incompatible waterfalls, more
geysers than found In the rest of the world all
put together. irrigated by rivers like miniature
lakes, and beautifed by lakes like inland seas,
carved by canyons of sublmity. decorated with
colors defying the painters art, punctured with
innumerable boiling springs whose steam mingles
with feecy clouds, succeed with vast areas OF
petrifed forests, sanctuary Of safe retreat for
feathered songsters and wild beasts, wonder
land, playground, sanitarium and university all
in one, where the eye feasts upon the riotous
colors of flowers ferns and rocks; the ear is
surged with the symphony of melodious sounds;
the mind is stated with a thousand revelations of
truth and beauty, and the jaded body, weary with
the trudge Of thought and toll and travel, ungrds
for song and dance beneath the shadows Of the
everlasting hills
yellowstone history is replete with crises
where the friends of the park and the park idea
have had to fight with heroism worthy its ex-
porers and discoveries to retain 1t intact against
the bold and presumptuous claims of the advo-
Gates of special privilege, determined to CONNER
cialize this land Of wonder to build railroads
through it, tunnel its mountains, dam its lakes
and streams and secure stranglehold monopolies
with small compensation to the government and
total loss to the people
"And regardless Of all facts and figures, appeals
ard threats, therefore any plan, however meri-
torious on Its face, for the commercial exploita-
ton Of parks must by the very nature of its
aims and purposes be Immediately doomed to
failure.
"Good projects. bad projects, Indifferent prof.
ects all must face the same fate for 1t is at last
established policy of the government that our
national parks must and shall forever be main
tanned in absolute unimpaired form. not only for
the present, but for all time to come. policy
which has the unqualified support of President
Harding.
"This is the fixed policy Of the administration,
and can assure you 1t will not be modified. 1t
viii, not be swerved hairs breadth by any inhu-
ence, financial, political or otherwise
IF rights are granted to one claimant others
must follow, so precedent must not be estab-
lshed 1t 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 1920 it has
! required increasing vigilance and aggressive
ganized effort on the part of the vast army Of
national park enthusiasts to defeat these attacks.
| During the winter and spring of 1920 the Sixty
| sixth congress nearly passed the Smith bill ere
ating a commercial irrigation reservoir in the
southwest corner of Yellowstone for the benefit of
| Idaho. And 1t did pass the water power bill
granting to a commission power to lease public
waters, including those of the national parks and
monuments for water power.