264 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



THE DECADE OF STRUGGLE 



The story of the decade of reaction beginning in 

 1920 which tested public acceptance of park stand- 

 ards from every view-point will some day need a 

 book of its own. Its merest outline only can here be 

 sketched. Target of profit seekers by every method 

 of attack known in Congress, the System exists to- 

 day only because devoted citizens, combined in an 

 informal league of defense throughout the nation, 

 protest unceasingly. 



The invasions fall into these classes : 



1. The Industrial Invasion began in 1819 with 

 an attempt to plant an irrigation reservoir within 

 Yellowstone National Park. Attempts also to dam 

 Yellowstone Lake for irrigation, to force water 

 power into a Sierra area designed for park inclusion, 

 and to force into the System the precedent of a New 

 Mexican area violating National Park principles in 

 every possible respect, were the features of a bit- 

 terly-fought struggle in Congress which was finally 

 concluded in 1926 by public acknowledgment of de- 

 feat by the interests and their cessation of hostile 

 acts. Since then, industrial interests have sought, 

 instead, to cut reservoirs out of park boundaries 

 which makes a fair public issue in which each side 

 may rest safely upon its merits. 



2. The Local Profit Invasion, turned back in 

 the Far West, now swarming up from the Southeast 



