

EDITORIAL 



697 



In this way more than ten million recreation-days were 

 secured which were in every case at least ten hours long. 

 If this is computed on the lowest possible cost of recrea- 

 tion in the market or ten cents an hour it would mean each 

 day was worth not less than a dollar to each person secur- 

 ing it, or for the entire Forest system there were "market- 

 ed" ten million dollars worth of recreation units. Even on 

 this basis which is wholly inadequate the recreation com- 

 modity in the Forests topped all other receipts from other 

 sources in forest products combined. Only these peo- 

 ple were not charged a cent for this use which is theirs by 

 right so this money was not collected. Collection or no 

 collection, the value of recreation is still there. 



This is putting recreation in the Forests on the dime 

 and dollar basis. It is the lowest estimate we can make of 

 the use. A dime an hour will never cover the real values 

 nor will a dollar. The real values lie in better health, 

 cleaner minds and bodies, broader vision, greater love of 

 country, increased efficiency, keener knowledge of nature 

 and God and the many other body, soul and mind bene- 

 fits which come from play in the open. 

 * * * 



Can these be reduced to a market value? Where is 

 there a place that you can buy so many hours of com- 

 munion with God through Nature? Where can we get a 

 ton or so of patriotism and at what price? Is there a place 

 where they sell good health by the hour and what is the 

 cost? There is no place in the land where such values 

 can be produced better than in the National Forests an 

 therefore our manufacturing plant for recreation found 

 there is one of the most important factors in the future 

 of the land producing and delivering directly to the 

 populace as it does, these values which cannot be meas- 

 ured in money. 



It is perfectly conceivable that through outdoor play 

 this Nation will come to produce a race of men and wo- 

 men of greater thinking powers, more robust bodies and 

 finer souls than the world has ever known. The cities 

 will never do it. The Forests alone will never accom- 

 plish it. But a combination of city in which to apply the 

 lessons learned in the Forest and the Forest in which 

 to turn for strength and inspiration when the city palls 

 may do it. If it is to be accomplished we must come to 

 recognize and never lose sight of the fact that if we are 

 to produce the recreation to do this we must organize it 

 and develop it so it may be of service just as surely as we 

 have developed our other great producing plants of the 

 country. 



These are the products from our plant for human 

 service in the Forest. Ten million days of play of un- 

 beatable quality were produced through the human use 

 of Forest lands in the one year. With this mammoth 

 annual production it is reasonable to suppose that some 

 substantial sums have been put into improvements which 

 make this use possible but 



Congress has never appropriated one cent for recrea- 

 tional improvements in the National Forests ! 



It is a fact that a ten million dollar value on the mar- 

 ket price basis is produced in the human use of our 



National Forests each year without there having been one 

 dollar officially spent by the Nation to produce it. In a 

 few places local people have spent a few thousand dol- 

 lars to provide necessary improvements to make the use 

 of the Forests safer. But the use is National in scope 

 and the local people should not have to develop that which 

 will be of benefit to the entire Nation. 



At first glance it may seem that local inhabitants will 

 make the greatest use of these developments. That is 

 true. But do not local inhabitants reap the benefit from 

 improved highway development? Immense National 

 funds go into this activity each year and while the people 

 in distant states may have some benefit from a direct 

 use of the road it more generally is used in local traffic. 



Then is it not true also that if the health of a city near 

 a National Forest is made better by the use of the play- 

 grounds there that it raises the health, spirit and pro- 

 ductiveness of the entire country just that much? It is 

 small that is true but is it not the same sort of a situa- 

 tion as the highway example? The Nation benefits 

 through the individual and this is true in Forest Recrea- 

 tion. 



* * * 



But the application and comparison does not cover the 

 entire situation. The use of the National Forests for 

 play is truly National. In the first place they are located 

 East, West, North and South. They can be easily reach- 

 ed from population centers. And in the second 

 place the Forests of the West have each year thousands 

 of visitors from every state in the Union. Every one 

 seeking the mountain lands of the West uses the National 

 Forests for some sort of recreation and through these 

 individuals from the many states the city, county, and 

 state of which they are citizens benefit from forest play. 



Last year Forester Greeley asked Congress for the 

 small sum of $50,000 to be placed in recreational im- 

 provements in the Forests. Such an amount would not 

 begin to even take care of the sanitary features. This 

 small asking must have been wholly based on the need 

 for economy rather than on what should be done. In 

 spite of the fact that this would and should meet only 

 the most imperative needs this item was stricken out 

 of the bill in the sub-committee. 



This eliminated the possibility of securing National 

 funds for developing the producing and protection feat- 

 ures of Forest Recreation last season. If it were fully re- 

 alized that such a fund would have produced a million 

 dollars more worth of recreation it probably would have 

 been demanded by the public in general and have been 

 endorsed by this sub-committee. And if it were gen- 

 erally realized that such an expenditure is necessary to 

 protect human life in the Forests it would unquestionably 

 have received more consideration than it did. These two 

 conditions are true. 



This fall Col. Greeley is asking for the extremely mod- 

 est sum of $10,000 to take care of the protective situa- 

 tion in camp areas on 152 National Forests totaling 156,- 

 000,000 acres ! It will not begin to do this, of course, 

 but it will eliminate a few of the most dangerous places. 



