Belt Valley times. [volume] (Armington, Mont.) 1894-1977, 1923-09-13
REPRESENTATIVE
1921 penlnSE voke5
Administration Policy of
Complete Conservation
for Our National Parks


BY JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN
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@~ HE national parks lost a good
friend when Warren G. Harding
died. His appreciation and APP
prevail of the national park move
EMls~ ment were signally shown at the
u 1HHSN 1923 opening of Yellowstone for
T. AEN. it's ~ffty-frst year by an official
W18A) declaration of administration pol
~ KH1 Icy worthy of its place as the first
national park in all history and
largest and most famous OF att
Americas nineteen public play
grounds set apart by congress for the use OF Inc
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
DIR. John Wesley Hill, chancellor OF Lincoln
Memorial university. made the declaration He
officially represented President Harding and Sec
rotary of the Interior Work at the Yellowstone
opening. His statement was prepared. careful
and emphatic. II contained the following:
"And we are here today TO celebrate the
annual opening of Yellowstone park. the largest
and most far-famed of our national parks. a wooded
wilderness of three thousand three hundred square
miles, containing Incompatible waterfalls. more
geysers than are 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 sublimity, decorated with
colors defylng the painters art, punctured with
innumerable boiling springs whose steam mingles
with heecy clouds, succeed with vast areas OF
petrifed forests. a sanctuary of safe retreat for
feathered songsters and wild beasts. q wonder
land. playground. sanitarium and university all
In one. where the eye feasts upon the riotous
coiors of flowers, ferns and rocks; the ear Is
surged with the symphony of melodfous sounds
che mind Is stated with a thousand revelations of
truth and beauty. and the jaded body. weary w"h
the trudge of thought and toll and travel. ungirds
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 a beroism worthy its ex-
plorers and discoveries to retain II intact against
the bold and presumptuous claims OF the advo-
Gates of special privilege. determined to CONNER
ciaIize this land of wonder, to build railroads
through II. tunnel its mountains. dam its lakes
and streams. and secure strangIehold monopoifes
with small compensation to the government and
total loss to the people.
And regardless Of all facts and figures. appeals
end threats. therefore. any plan. however meri-
forious on Its face. for the commercial expIoita-
ton of parks must by the very nature of Its
aims and purposes be Immediately doomed to
failure.
Good projects. had projects. Indifferent prof.
ecfs, all must face the same fate, for II 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. n policy
which has the unqualified support OF President
Harding.
This Is the fixed policy Of the administration.
and I can assure you II win not be modified. 1t
viii not be swerved a hairs breadth by any trhu-
ence. financial, political or otherwise.
IF rights are granted TO one claimant. others
must follow. so a precedent must not be estab-
ushed- 1t would inevitably ruin the entire national
park system"
Doctor Hill might have been more definite In
the matter of tile attacks by commercial interests
upon Yellowstone Since early I'm 1870 IL has
required increasing vigilance and aggressive or
xanfxed 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
SIKH congress nearly passed the Smith bill ere
sting y commercial irrigation reservoir in the
southwest corner Of Yellowstone for the bens0t Of
Idaho. And IL did pass the water power blu
granting 10 y commission power to ease public
~rsxesx. including these Of the national parks ana
ssa4numentx. for water powa. n