STEPHEN T. MATHER, THE MAN WHO DID IT 



ANY general review of the National Parks is incom- 

 plete without mention of the man who rescued them 

 from chaos, made them known to the public, organized 

 them, moulded them into an efficient system, developed 

 their road, trail, hotel and transportation systems to the 

 needs of their swift growth, released them from the 

 bondage of politics and placed them under a body of able 

 superintendents especially trained to the complicated re- 

 quirements of the service. 



Stephen T. Mather did this as his contribution to the 

 nation. But not all of his contribution. When appro- 

 priations lagged he drew heavily on his private means. 

 To a protesting friend he once said : "I got my money 

 from the American soil. Let some of it go back as a 

 thanks offering." His business is the mining of borax 

 from the Californian desert. 



Franklin K. Lane, because he knew his personal and 

 business quality, invited Mr. Mather to come into the 

 Interior Department as Assistant to the Secretary and 

 prepare the western National Parks for the crowds which 

 the approaching Pacific expositions might be expected 

 to bring them. Mr. Mather spent a month in Washing- 

 ton looking over the situation. It was then he dreamed 

 his great dream of the magnificent system which is now 

 growing under his hands. He accepted the office with 

 the understanding that he should have the chance to 

 make this dream come true. 



An incident of his installation is worth telling. Secre- 

 tary Lane led him into his new office, seated him, bowed 

 grandiloquently and said : "Mr. Secretary, I salute you." 

 Then he left the room, but a moment afterwards thrust 

 his head through the door and said: 



"By the way, Steve, I forgot to ask you, what are your 

 politics?" 



The situation which faced the new executive was 

 appalling. National Parks were grouped with the odds 

 and ends, the misfits, which Congress from time to time 

 had dropped in to the Interior Department because 

 there was no fitting administrative place for them. 

 There were no appropriations for administration. There 

 was not even one clerk who did nothing else. There was 

 no co-ordination ; every National Park was an individual 

 administrative unit. If one, for instance, needed the 

 temporary service of an engineer, it was not lawful to 

 send there the engineer of another park who had nothing 

 to do at the time. An over supply of material purchased 

 for Glacier National Park could not be used in Yellow- 

 stone. The task was Herculean. 



Mr. Mather surrounded himself with experts and 

 went manfully to it. The first thing was to get the 

 people behind him. Few people could name more than 

 two of the sixteen National Parks then constituting the 

 system. Thousands thought Yellowstone the only 

 National Park. School books contained no mention of 

 National Parks. Only the greater atlases identified them. 

 Their fundamental principle of complete conservation 



was understood by very few. Only a handful of men 

 in Congress knew or cared anything about them. To 

 most, they were merely a group of playgrounds which 

 happened to be owned by the nation and therefore must 

 be cared for. 



After a year's study Mr. Mather determined that a 

 bureau of administration at Washington was the necess- 

 ary first step toward development and systematization. 

 An idealistic bill to create a bureau had already been 

 introduced into Congress, which he remodeled to the 

 practical needs of the situation. In 1916 Congress, pass- 

 ing this bill, created the National Park Service, but 

 appropriated no money ; so it did not become effective 

 till the following year. Resigning his Assistant Secre- 

 taryship, Mr. Mather then became Director of this Ser- 

 vice. The magnificent national parks system we now 

 possess has been his accomplishment of the several years 

 since. May he live the years necessary to carry his 

 splendid dreaming into full realization ! 



From the beginning Mr. Mather realized that success 

 depended upon the complete elimination of politics from 

 the administration of the Parks. This was easy to accom- 

 plish in the new administrative office in Washington, 

 but it was a matter of difficulty in the field, where the 

 superintendences had been regarded as legitimate politi- 

 cal plums. 



But these were the points of most importance. Upon 

 the personal quality, fitness and training of the superin- 

 tendents depended absolutely the success or failure of 

 the whole. 



The superintendent must not only be a man of admin- 

 istrative ability and trained to the life and hard condi- 

 tions of the wilderness. He must be a natural leader and 

 handler of rough men, a strict and just disciplinarian. 

 He must be an indefatigable worker, a resourceful com- 

 mander in the emergencies of the wilderness. He must 

 make a dollar do the work of two. He must know how 

 to fight fires, protect forests and wild animals. If not an 

 engineer, he must be familiar with road building and 

 construction work of all kinds under wilderness condi- 

 tions, prepared to take personal charge and make difficult 

 decisions in emergency. He must do his work with a 

 minimum of assistance, for appropriations were alto- 

 gether insufficient. 



And besides these qualifications, difficult enough to 

 find combined in any one executive, the superintendent 

 must also be the wise, forceful, energetic, diplomatic and 

 accomplished guardian of the many thousands who every 

 year visit his wilderness from homes in cities and towns! 

 To find these men, to persuade them to accept govern- 

 ment salaries, to train them, watch their work and back 

 them up was a feat of the utmost difficulty. His suc- 

 cess has been remarkable so far as it has gone. It is a 

 work of years. 



National Park superintendents are on the "unclassified 

 list," that is, they are not protected in their positions by 



