458 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



What is the effect of the scenic beauty 

 of Washington upon the citizens of the 

 nation who come here? Is not their pride 

 awakened, their patriotism quickened, their 

 love of country increased by the dignity of 

 man's effort for beauty here? Consider 

 weahhy Pittsburg, busy Cincinnati, proud 

 Chicago, with their wasteful smoke, their 

 formless streets, their all-pervading bill- 

 boards and grime — would one of these serve 

 to stimulate love of country as the national 

 capital ? 



No, the unthinking and ofttimes unneces- 

 sary ugliness of civ.lization does not foster 

 patriotism, nor does it promote the health 

 and happiness which are at the ver}' basis 

 of good citizenship. When, in looking over 

 the horrors of industrial civilization, Will- 

 iam Morris urged humanitarian effort 



"Until the contrast is less disgrace- 

 ful between the fields where the 

 beasts live and the streets where 

 men live," 



he brought out a bitter truth. We have 

 made our cities ugly, for the most part ; 

 but we are learning the basis of happy citi- 

 zenship, and, while we cannot altogether 

 make over these centers of population, we 

 are bringing into them the scenic suggestion 

 as well as the physical facilities of the open 

 country, in the parks. In these parks lies 

 the answer to the ignorant contempt for 

 scenery to which I have alluded ; for it is 

 incontrovertible that peace and health and 

 good order are best fostered in the parks 

 including the most natural scenic beauties. 



Mr. Chairman, there is, too, a vast eco- 

 nomic reason for jealously guarding all of 

 our scenic heritages in America. Visiting 

 a quiet Canadian community on the shore 

 of Lake Ontario a few days since, I was 

 impressed by the number and the beauty of 

 the summer homes there existing. Inquiry 

 brought out the astonishing fact that they 

 were almost exclusively owned by residents 

 of a certain very wealthy and certainly very 

 ugly American city, where iron is king. 

 The iron manufacturers flee from the all- 

 pervading ugliness they have created, and 

 the money earned in complete disregard of 

 the naturally fine scenic conditions about 

 their own homes is used in buying scenic 

 beauty in a foreign country. Perhaps a cer- 

 tain form of protection is here suggested ! 



It is authoritatively stated that the tour- 

 ist travel tribute paid annmlly to Europe 

 exceeds a half-billion dollars, of which vast 

 sum America contributes a full half, get- 

 ting back a far smaller sum in return travel 

 from all the world. No one will suggest 

 that there is travel to see ugly things, or to 

 look upon wasted scenery, in Europe. No. 

 this vast sum is expended almost entirely in 

 travel to view agreeable scenic conditions, 

 either natural or urban. The lumber king 

 leaves the hills he has denuded into piteous 



ugliness, and takes his family to view the 

 jealously guarded and economically beautiful 

 Black Forest of Germany. The coal opera- 

 tor who has made a horror of a whole coun- 

 tr}', and who is responsible for the dreadful 

 kennels among the culm-banks in which his 

 imported labor lives, travels with his gains 

 to beautiful France, and he may motor 

 through the humble but sightly European 

 villages from whence came his last invoice 

 of workers. 



Every instinct for permanent business 

 prosperity should impel us not only to save 

 in their natural beauty all our important 

 scenic possessions, but, also, to fully safe- 

 guard the great and revolutionary develop- 

 ment almost certain to follow this epoch- 

 making conference. We are assured by ex- 

 perience that the use of our great renewable 

 resources of soil fertility is attended with 

 the cont nnsnce of beautiful scenic condi- 

 tions. The smiling farm, the blooming and 

 glowing orchard, the waving wheat-fields,, 

 the rustle of the corn — all these spell peace- 

 ful beauty as well as national wealth which' 

 we can indefinitely continue and increase. 



Can we not see to it that the further use 

 of our unrenewable resources of minerals, 

 and primeval forest is no longer attended 

 with a sad change of beautiful, restful, and' 

 truly valuable scenery into the blasted hill- 

 side and painful ore-dump, ugly, disturbing 

 and valueless? 



The waters of our stream- must f inii.'h' 

 the "white coal" of the future, and electri- 

 cally turn the wheels of commerce in smoke- 

 less economy. Such a change can consider, 

 retain, and sometimes increase the beauty 

 of the scenery ; or it can introduce the sacri- 

 legious ueliness of which the American 

 gorge at Niagara is at present so disgraceful 

 an example. The banks of the waterways, 

 we are to develop can be made so pleasing 

 as to attract travel, rather than repel it, 

 if we care for this land of ours as a place- 

 to dwell in, rather than to flee from. 



We cannot, either, safely overlook the ne- 

 cessity for retaining not only for ourselves, 

 but for our children's children, at least a 

 portion of God's glory of mountain and vale, 

 lake, forest, and seaside. His refuge in the 

 very bosom of nature, to which we may flee 

 from the noise and strain of the market- 

 place, for that renewing of spirit and 

 strength which cannot be had elsewhere. 

 True, we can continue and expand our 

 travel tribute to the better sense of the 

 Eastern A^'orld, but that will not avail our 

 toiling millions. "Beauty for the few, no 

 more than freedom or education for the 

 few," urges William Morris, and who shall 

 say that such natural beauty of scenery as 

 we have is not the heritage of all, and a 

 plain necessity for good citizenship? 



Every one of us recognizes the renewing 

 of strength and spirit that comes from even 

 a temporary sojourn amidst natural scenic 

 delights. The President has but just returned 



