34 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



taken by the society in the National Parks. 

 Mr. Richard B. Watrous was then presented 

 and spoke of the proposed erection of a power 

 plant on the bank of the Potomac River in 

 Washington and then took up his subject of 

 National Parks. After a short talk by Mr. 

 Manning, Mr. Herbert Gleason, a member of 

 the American Civic Association's Special Com- 

 mittee on the National Parks, was introduced 

 and delivered an extraordinarily interesting 

 lecture describing and illustrating with his 

 wonderful colored slides typical landscapes of 

 all the fourteen National Parks. 



President Pray then presented a set of reso- 

 lutions on National Parks which was unani- 

 mously endorsed. 



RESOLUTION 



Whereas, The need has long been felt not 

 only for more adequate protection of the sur- 

 passing beauty of those primeval landscapes 

 which the National Parks have been created 

 to perpetuate, but also for rendering this land- 

 scape beauty more readily enjoyable through 

 construction in these paiks of certain neces- 

 sary roads and buildings for the accommoda- 

 tion of visitors in a way to bring the minimum 

 of injury to these primeval landscapes; 



Whereas, The meeting of this two-fold need 

 can only be expected to come from, on the 

 one hand, the creation of a special government 

 service charged with the sole responsibility 

 for the care and maintenance and, so far as 

 need be, the development, of these areas for 

 their primary recreative purpose, and, on the 

 other hand, from the securing by such govern- 

 ment service when created, of the most expert 

 professional counsel to advise as to the actual 

 treatment of these areas, including their plan- 

 ning and the design of all necessary construc- 

 tions with them; 



Whereas, The Secretary of the Interior has 

 now appointed in responsible charge of these 

 National Parks, Stephen Tyng Mather, and as 

 general superintendent of the National Parks, 

 under him and in direct responsible relation 

 to these park areas, Robert Bradford Marshall, 

 both public servants of the highest character 

 and standing, and, in the judgment of this so- 

 ciety particularly qualified to be in adminis- 

 trative charge of these areas, and it is under- 

 stood that they do not intend to accept or 

 adopt any comprehensive plans for these areas, 

 or designs for constructions which such plans 

 may provide for, without first securing the ap- 

 proval of qualified experts advisory, and an 



earnest desire for the co-operation of this 

 society had been expressed; and 



Whereas, A bill (H. R. 8668) has been in- 

 troduced in Congress by Mr. Kent of Cali- 

 fornia and has been referred to the Commit- 

 tee on Public Lands, being a bill to establish 

 a National Park Service, and drawn by mem- 

 bers of the American Civic Association in con- 

 ference with representatives of the American 

 Society of Landscape Architects: be it, and it 

 hereby is, 



Resolved: First, that the American Society 

 of Landscape Architects declares its confi- 

 dence in the present provisional administra- 

 tion of the National Parks; 



Second, that the American Society of Land- 

 scape Architects endorses the bill (H. R. 8668), 

 entitled a Bill to Establish a National Park 

 Service, and pledges its utmost efiforts, in co- 

 operation with the American Civic Associa- 

 tion, to secure its passage; 



Third, that the American Society of Land- 

 scape Architects pledges itself, and invites its 

 individual members, to co-operate in any way 

 possible, and consistent with the recognized 

 ethics of the profession, with the present pro- 

 visional National Park Service, and with the 

 National Park service sought to be established 

 under the aforesaid bill. 



RESOLUTION regarding erection of pow- 

 er plant in Washington, D. C, also endorsed 

 at the society meeting of February 14, 1916. 



Whereas, It is proposed to erect a govern- 

 ment power plant of large proportions on the 

 bank of the Potomac in the city of Washing- 

 ton with four smoke chimneys, each about 

 two hundred feet in height, and in a location 

 where they will be seen conspicuously from the 

 capitol, the new Lincoln monument, and the 

 new East Potomac Park, and in relation with 

 the Washington monument; and 



Whereas, Such a structure in this location 

 will seriously interfere with the proper de- 

 velopment of the great plan for the city of 

 Washington originated by the French engineer 

 L'Enfant, and recommended by the Park Com- 

 mission of the District of Columbia and the 

 Senate Committee on the District of Colum- 

 bia, in Senate report number 166 of the 57th 

 Congress, first session, which plan in the judg- 

 ment of the society should be scrupulously ad- 

 hered to; be, and it hereby is, 



Resolved, That the American Society of 

 Landscape Architects is emphatically opposed 

 to the erection of the proposed power plant 

 in Washington on the bank of the Potomac, 



