14 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



of citizens are interested in one or more depart- 

 ments of nature conservation to-day. Organization 

 of the organizations themselves was inevitable. Be- 

 ginning informally in defense of National Parks 

 threatened by water power in 1915, it acquired form 

 and initiative in 1924. 



The National Conference on Outdoor Recrea- 

 tion, created on invitation of President Coolidge, 

 was badly named. No other word than Recreation 

 was found broad enough to cover the great range of 

 objectives, principally land conservational, then 

 brought together. Many of these, like wild life pro- 

 tection, stream purification, and maintenance of Na- 

 tional Park standards, had little to do with "diversion 

 after labor" which is the popular and dictionary 

 meaning of the word recreation, but it couldn't be 

 helped. The inclusive word does not yet exist. By 

 twinning together a council of public-minded private 

 organizations and a special committee of the Presi- 

 dent's cabinet, a body was created which has 

 achieved much and points to better organization and 

 greater achievement in the future. 



It was the Federal Lands which brought to the 

 surface the policy of conservation of natural re- 

 sources for economic use ; the long and bitter war of 

 Cleveland's and Roosevelt's times centering upon 

 national possession of the federal forests made that 

 a formal national policy. It was the Federal Lands 

 which nationalized the principle of conservation for 

 preservation; struggles for many years over wild 



