CHAPTER X 

 A HALF CENTURY OF NATURE CONSERVATION 



WHEN President Coolidge issued a call in May, 

 1924, to all the popular national organiza- 

 tions in the country which dealt with out-of-doors 

 activities to send delegates to a National Outdoor 

 Recreation Conference, there did not lack seasonable 

 accusations that he was "playing for the conserva- 

 tion vote." But jockeying for the next presidential 

 campaign was just beginning, whereas, this getting 

 together had been in evolution for fifty years ; it had 

 been confidently prophesied for half a dozen years; 

 it had been expected any time for two or three years, 

 and circumstances quite fortuitous precipitated the 

 occasion and made the President the appropriate 

 mouthpiece of the call. 



An Outdoor Recreation Conference! Not 

 many, perhaps, of the delegates arrived conscious 

 of the historic significance of the gathering, and 

 many departed without realizing that they had par- 

 ticipated in the practical beginning of a new order. 

 Certainly the press did not, for it reported little be- 

 sides the initial statements and address by the Presi- 

 dent on the influence of outdoor life, and none of the 

 Conference results. 



The term outdoor recreation of course meant 

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