56 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



of our national forests, and later of many other val- 

 uable reservations. 



The great war which then established conser- 

 vation as a government policy began under Harri- 

 son and was won under Roosevelt. Its story comes 

 later on in the chapter on National Forests. It was 

 followed by many sharp counter attacks which 

 failed, in which by turn National Parks, National 

 Forests and very recently national grazing lands 

 have been the prize. In fact, scarcely a skirmish of 

 them all has succeeded, so far, though the stress of 

 battle has sometimes been severe. 



But the greater movement to turn all national 

 properties over to the states within whose bounda- 

 ries they lie is nevertheless gathering headway. 



In the East, persistent energetic attempts have 

 been making for several years to have local areas 

 created National Parks in order to profit locally by 

 the national values which it is hoped thus to build 

 up within state boundaries, at the same time provid- 

 ing upkeep, development, and administration charges 

 at the national expense. So far these have failed. 

 Congress, to be sure, has authorized eastern National 

 Parks, but the undeserving have not yet qualified, 

 and may not. The vigorous but poorly handled 

 movement to get national grazing lands virtually 

 into private possession has also failed, dismally. 



Leaders of the local interests now seem to have 

 determined to bring on the main issue without fur- 

 ther preliminaries. Demand has been made for- 



