Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 107, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1916 — For National Park Service [ARTICLE]

For National Park Service

A bill is under consideration in congress to establish a national park service. The federal government owns fourteen national parks, with a total area of nearly five million acres, all under the Jurisdiction of the department of the Interior. It also owns thirty-one nation's! monuments, of which nineteen are In the department of the Interior, ten in the department of agriculture and two in the war department. Under existing arrangements there has been no central organization for the. administration of these splendid recreational possessions. Each of the fourteen national parks Is now under separate management. It is very desirable that these parks be administered through a general bureau at the seat of government In Washington. There is a constantly increasing volume of travel to the national parks, and it Is necessary that there should be one central organization which may furnish reliable information attractively prepared for the benefit of tourists to the parks. Under the existing order of things very little systematic work in thiß direction has been possible. With a national park service, equipped with facilities and a competent corps of workers, there might be developed a fine bureau of information, supplying to the general public the things it wants to know about its parks and monuments. It is to be noted in this connection that Canada, through its department of parks, has so thoroughly exploited its several national parks that during the season of 1915,when there was such A large volume of travel through the West, the Canadian parks attracted In the aggre---gate mere -visiters than the parks of States, thus affording a fine illustration of what the government in exploitation of its recreational areas can do.

Some men are Dora great, some achieve greatness, and the rest try to thrust themselves upon It