282 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



a code of use which conceives them merely play- 

 grounds, the whole problem of recreational develop- 

 ment is put upon a vastly different plane. Under the 

 latter conception, any Federal land not dedicated by 

 law to other uses would qualify for National Park in- 

 clusion provided it possessed recreational possibilities. 

 The expansion of the National Parks area would 

 thereafter be almost unlimited, but it would be at the 

 tragic sacrifice of the institutional character and in- 

 spiring public and national uses of the National Parks 

 System. And the intricate question of where the 

 responsibility of the Federal government to provide 

 outdoor playgrounds begins and ends in relation to 

 similar responsibilities on the part of states, counties, 

 and municipalities becomes at once injected into the 

 whole scheme of recreational development. 



"Looking forward a hundred years into the fu- 

 ture it must be obvious that no permanent and inclu- 

 sive national programme of outdoor recreation can 

 be formulated until the principles and objects of the 

 National Parks System are clearly defined in law 

 once for all. In the judgment of the committee this 

 is one of the most immediate problems confronting 

 the formulation of a national policy of outdoor 

 recreation." 



Thanks to the thousands of individuals and 

 hundreds of organizations throughout the country 

 which have come to the defense of the System at- 

 tacked, and stuck to it through a series of years, the 

 continued safety of the national ideal appears to me 



