Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-28
PLAQUES TO HONOR
STEPHEN I. MATHER|
Creator of American Park
System to Be MemoriaIized
Throughout Nation.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

AS a tribute of national apprecia-
tlon" OF the services of Stephen T.
Matner, creator Of the United States
present system of national parks,
aFustic bronze plaques, bearing his like
ness, are to be placed next year in
Tue II national parks and 33 national
monuments OF the country. The de-
cision thus to honor the late director
Of the national park service has been
mace by the. Stephen T. Mather APP
probation Committee" of which John
Hays Hammond of Washington is the
chairman.
THE plaques have been designed by
one of Americas most eminent sculp-
tors, Bryant Baker of New York. The
latest OF Mr.. Raker's designs to chal-
!enge public notice was the Pioneer
woman" statue recently erected at
Ponca, Okla. He chiseled the model
Tor the statue of Woodrow Wilson at
Geneva, Switzerland, and for the statue
OF Chief Justice Edward Douglass White
at New Orleans. In Buffalo, N. Y.
Bakers statue of Grover Cleveland will
shortly be unveiled.
Plaques to Go in Parks.
The plan to honor Mather's memory
within the domains of the parks and
monuments whose care became his life
work followed last Springs action by the
National Academy of Sciences in award
ing him posthumously the academy's
public welfare medal The bronze
plaques, which will bear Mather's pro-
ME on base two or three feet in width,
VIII be set up in appropriate spots at
the national parks throughout the West
and in Hawaii and Alaska, and at ma
tional monuments in many parts of the
country.
The national monuments include
Lincoln's birthplace in Kentucky, ia
nous battlefields of the Revolutionary,
Mexican and Indian wars, Aztec ruins
in New Mexico, lava beds in California,
Fort McHenry, Md; craters of the moon,
Idaho; and a number of national mill
tary parks under the jurisdiction Of
the Secretary of War.
Stephen Mather passed away last
Winter. His conception of the United
States park system was that it should
constitute national gallery of Amer
lean scenic masterpieces" To the real
tzation of that ideal he gave the last
and best years of his life. 1t was not
as recreational areas that Mather
thought of the Yellowstone. the Yosem-
lite and the other primeval domains
which an esthetic Uncle Sam has con-
trived to keep from the enterprising,
but marauding, hand OF man.
Parks As Things Of Beauty.
Mather saw in our national parks,
ESSENTIALLY, things of beauty. He saw
grandeur in the wilderness and glory
in the untamed forest. He sought to
maintain them undefiled, as they were
created. He peered down the centuries
that are to be and dreamed of the
spiritual satisfaction that would fill the
Americans of days now far of as they
reveled In the richness of their ancestral
civilization on both sides of the Great
Divide
It was fellow Californian, Franklin
K Lane, whom Mather first impressed
with the idea of unified national park
control, scientifically organized and SUI
pervised. Then wealthy Chicago BUSH
ness man, Mather came to washington
I'm 1914 and accepted an inconspicuous
administrative post in the Department
of the Interior for the purpose of carry
ing out his ideas He did his work
rapidly and effectively. He caused Con-
gress to recognize the usefulness of a
national park bureau, adequately n
nanced
Committee Personnel Announced.
Secretary Lane persuaded MatlneT to
remain as director of the system the
latter had devised, and thencefortl the
practical idealiSt from the West threw
into the national park service every
ounce Of his brilliant energy to the ex-
clusion of his private interests. In
very literal sense, he broke down in the
service, but not until he had seen 1t
launched along lines which insured the
perpetuation of his ideals.
The executive committee which has
had charge of the Stephen T. Mather
appreciation" includes, besides John
Hays Hammond, George w. White Of
washington, treasurer; DR.. Vernon L.
kellogg. executive secretary of the Ma
tional Research Council; Dr. Gilbert H.
Grosvenor, president of the National
Geographic Society; Representative
Louis c. Cramton Of Michigan; Theo-
dore W. Noyes, editor of The Washing
ton Star, and Mrs. Henry A. Strong,
chairman of the board of the Hattie NJ.
Strong Foundation, Washington Frank
lin Adams, counselor of the Pan-Ameri-
can Union. has been active In the "ap-
probation" movement, too.