230 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



park, and therefore gives no revenue to California. And the 

 extra money that is spent going to and from the park is spent 

 in the towns. It increases the income of , the storekeepers, but it 

 does not add much to the tax revenue which all the residents 

 must pay. 



A park is created by an act of Congress and the people have 

 a chance to express their opinion of the system through their 

 congressmen. But once the park has been created, it is under 

 the Department of the Interior, which is administered by ap' 

 pointed rather than elected executives. It is possible for 

 Congress to change the rulings of the Park Service, but it is 

 very unlikely that any change would be made to satisfy or 

 correct purely local conditions. In other words, although in 

 the final analysis the people through Congress do control the 

 Park Service, practically it operates as an independent bureau 

 administered from the central government in Washington. 



The Park Service must not necessarily always be ready to 

 change its policy to meet new conditions for this reason. A 

 park is designed to be kept as it was for all time. It is the 

 property of all of the people. It is a resource to be used by all 

 of the people, but no group of people depend on this resource 

 for their living as cattle raisers depend on the gracing lands or 

 lumber companies on the forests. In other words, it is the 

 national interest rather than the local interest that is most 

 important. In the case of agencies like the Soil Conservation 

 Service, the Forest Service, and the Division of Gracing, the 

 national interest is also important, since all three are saving 

 a national resource. But the local users live on the forests and 

 the soil and the range. They must be protected. For this reason, 

 there is a large amount of local control in these agencies. But in 

 all of these cases, the local and the national interest should be 

 balanced so that they work together for the common good. 



