OUR NATIONAL PARKS 
575 
to make place for new ones. Two bath- 
houses, equal if not superior to any in 
the world, have recently been opened, 
and one other bath-house is under con- 
struction ; two more are being extensively 
remodeled. 
The government is at present doing 
everything in its power to develop those 
environments which aid in the restora- 
tion of health and to destroy those which 
are deleterious. The wonderful results 
effected by these waters bid fair to make 
the Hot Springs of Arkansas one of the 
world's great health resorts. 
THOUSANDS 01? VISITORS 
All the national parks described above 
are under the administration and control 
of the Secretary of the Interior. Troops 
of cavalry patrol the Yellowstone, the 
Sequoia, the General Grant, and the 
Yosemite parks. The commanding offi- 
cer, who is the acting superintendent, re- 
ports to the Secretary of the Interior on 
matters of civil administration and to the 
Secretary of War on matters of military 
routine. In the Yellowstone Park there 
is a still further division of authority by 
the fact that all road construction, bridge 
building-, and road sprinkling are under 
the supervision of the Engineer Corps 
of the Army. In the other parks all the 
employees are appointed from civil life 
and report directly to the Secretary of 
the Interior. 
The number of visitors to the parks, 
not including the Hot Springs reserva- 
tion, has increased from 30,000 in 1906 
to 93,000 in 1911, and the growth of the 
park work has been such that the small 
force in the office of the Secretary of 
the Interior is not deemed sufficient to 
cope with the increasing number of prob- 
lems presented, and bills have been intro- 
duced in the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives for the creation of a bureau 
of national parks. The creation of such 
a bureau has been urged by Secretary of 
the Interior Walter L. Fisher in his an- 
nual report for 1911, and by President 
Taft. The latter, in a special message, 
February 2, 191 2, referred to the parks 
as follows : 
'T earnestly recommend the establish- 
ment of a bureau of national parks. 
Such legislation is essential to the proper 
management of those wondrous mani- 
festations of nature, so startling and so 
beautiful that every one recognizes the 
obligations of the government to pre- 
serve them for the edification and rec- 
reation of the people. The Yellowstone 
Park, the Yosemite, the Grand Canyon 
of the Colorado, the Glacier National 
Park, and the Mount Rainier National 
Park, and others furnish appropriate in- 
stances. 
"In only one case have we made any- 
thing like adequate preparation for the 
use of a park by the public. That case 
is the Yellowstone National Park. Every 
consideration of patriotism and the love 
of nature and of beauty and of art re- 
quires us to expend money enough to 
bring all these natural wonders within 
easy reach of our people. The first step 
in that direction is the establishment of 
a responsible bureau which shall take 
upon itself the burden of supervising the 
parks and of making .recommendations 
as to the best method of improving their 
accessibility and usefulness." 
OUR NATIONAL MONUMENTS 
In addition to the national parks, there 
are 28 national monuments that have 
been created by executive proclamation, 
in accordance with the provisions of the 
act of June 8, 1906, which provides that 
national monuments may be created by 
the President to include landmarks, his- 
toric and prehistoric structures, and 
other objects of historic or scientific in- 
terest that are situated upon lands owned 
or controlled by the government of the 
United States. The act also provides 
that private lands may be relinquished 
to the United States, and that the Secre- 
taries of the Interior, Agriculture, and 
War may make regulations governing 
the examination and excavation of ruins 
and the collection of objects of antiquity. 
While the act provides for fine or im- 
prisonment for injury to any of the 
ruins or natural objects within the 
boundaries of these monuments, Con- 
gress has never made an appropriation 
for supervision and protection ; conse- 
quently much difficulty has been experi- 
enced in protecting these monuments 
