230 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



National Forests and State Parks. They differ as 

 widely in principal objectives, also, National Parks 

 being inspirational, educative, historical and recre- 

 ational, National Forests economic and recreational, 

 State Parks recreational. Recreation, by which 

 most persons mean its dictionary definition of relax- 

 ational diversion, is common to all three, wherein 

 lies to-day's chief danger to the National Parks Sys- 

 tem because, in the hurrah beginnings of this new 

 outdoor era, enthusiastic public clamor so unduly 

 exalts mere outdoor pleasuring that many overlook 

 the System's additional unique permanent qualities 

 and higher values. 



This is dangerously true of localities in the East 

 which yearn to possess National Parks for their own 

 pride and profit, and of legislators keen to please 

 constituents upon whose supporting votes will de- 

 pend their own future public careers. It is true also 

 of certain ardent propagandists of recreation in the 

 dictionary sense only, who would reduce every out- 

 door area, national and state, to the same dead level 

 of standards and uses. 



To get at the root of the matter at the very 

 start, besides the recreational function which Na- 

 tional Parks share equally with National Forests and 

 State Parks, this System is also, under its definition, 

 a very remarkable National Gallery of Scenic Mas- 

 terpieces, the splendor and value of whose exhibits 

 will rapidly depreciate if diluted with landscapes of 

 lesser, commoner low-mountain country, however 



