A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 347 



states can provide large parks and forests for tran- 

 sient enjoyment and relaxation out-of-doors, but 

 man cannot replace the wilderness, and the remain- 

 ing wilderness of America, modified as inevitably 

 it has been is now found only in Federal ownership. 

 It is then the great responsibility of the Federal 

 Government to provide those forms of outdoor life 

 and recreation which it alone can give and which 

 are associated only with the wilderness." 



In spite of four recent years of bitter contest 

 in Congress to save National Parks from industrial 

 invasion ; in spite of attempts still making to destroy 

 standards in the interest of local profit; in spite of 

 two recent years of raiding National Forests in the 

 interest of cattlemen; in spite of four years defeat- 

 ing of bills to save breeding waters for disappearing 

 aquatic fowl; in spite of the revival of the reac- 

 tionary demand that federal properties shall pass 

 into local ownership; nevertheless we are fortunate 

 in the period of our participation in the inspiring 

 work of saving for the future something of America 

 as God made it. 



It is in Congress, very seldom nowadays in ad- 

 ministrative office, that assaults originate against 

 the land policies and institutions of the nation. Local 

 demand for federal property, local greed for profit 

 and appropriations at national expense, and, on 

 the part of legislators, the ever-present need to 

 strengthen political fences these are the usual mo- 

 tives of attack. But opponents are fewer to-day in 



