NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ORGANIZED 



437 



NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ORGANIZED 



TllM Xational Park Service, which was created by act 

 of Congress in August, 1916, to administer the Xa- 

 tional Parks under one correlated system, has been 

 organized under appropriations made in April. Secretary 

 Lane has appointed as Director Mr. Stephen T. Mather, 



STEPHEN T. MATHER 



Director of the National Park Service who has done remarkable %vork in develop- 

 ing the parks. 



who, to accept the place, resigned the office of Assistant 

 to the Secretary of the Interior. Horace M. Albright 

 becomes Assistant Director, and Frank W. Griffith, Chief 

 Clerk of the new bureau. 



Secretary Lane began the work of National Parks 

 development, the success of which is insured by the or- 

 ganization of this new bureau, two and a half years ago. 

 During this preliminary period much has been accom- 

 plished of importance to the cause. All National Parks 

 have been opened to automobiles. New roads have been 

 projected, of which many have been built and many im- 

 proved. Cooperation in the public interest has been pro- 

 moted between railroads and the Government, between 

 concessioners and park managements, and between parks. 

 Large private capital has been in(kiced to enter several 



Xational Parks for the enlargement and improvement of 

 hotel and transportation service. Prices t(j the public 

 have been decreased wherever possible. 



Xew concessions have been made on a basis destined 

 to make National Parks self-supporting under conditions 

 of increased patronage, and several parks already have 

 become self-supporting. Larger appropriations have 

 been secured from Congress for road building and the 

 perfecting of sanitary and other conditions. An exten- 

 sive educational campaign has been inaugurated for the 

 information of the people concerning the hitherto un- 

 known quality and extent of their scenic and recreational 

 possessions, under which public interest in our National 

 Parks is growing with unanticipated speed ; and public 

 realization, interest and practical use is the condition as 

 well as the object of National Parks development. Public 

 patronage of the parks has increased rapidly and steadily. 



These and many other beginnings point the way 

 toward the system which it will be the object of the new 

 Service to build and perfect. 



Stephen T. Mather, the head of the Service, was 

 formerly assistant to the secretary, in which office he 

 had supervision of the National Parks, and, in addition, 

 other Departmental work. He resigned that position to 

 become Director of the National Park Service, in order 

 that he might devote his entire time to the park work. 

 He was born in California in 1867, and educated at the 

 University of California. He then removed to New 

 York and engaged in newspaper work. Later he entered 

 the business of manufacturing borax and boracic acid as 

 a member of the Thorkildsen-Mather Company, with 

 offices in Chicago. He has devoted time, energy and his 

 own money to National Park work and has been a 

 remarkably successful official. 



E. A. STERLING'S NEW WORK 



Mr. E. A. Sterling, a well-known forest engineer, 

 who for the past two years has been manager of the 

 Trade Extension Departtnent of the National Lumber 

 Manufacturers' Association, at Chicago, has resigned 

 to become manager of the new eastern office of James 

 B. Lacey & Co. This office, which will be in the 

 Forty-second Street Building, New York City, will be 

 opened aliout August 1. In connection with his new 

 work Mr. Sterling will also take up some of his former 

 consulting practice as part of the activities of the office 

 of the Lacey Company. Mr. Sterling was for several 

 years in the United States Forest Service, and later 

 was a partner in the forest engineering firm of Clark, 

 Lyford & Sterling, which has headcjuarters at Van- 

 couver, B. C. Mr. Sterling had charge of the eastern 

 section of the United States, with offices in Philadel- 

 phia. For several years Mr. Sterling has been a direc- 

 tor and member of the executive committee of the 

 American Forestry Association. 



