HISTORY 49 



visitors to the parks numbered 69,018, as against 919,504 in 

 1920. Twelve of the national monuments were visited by 

 54,27(7 persons ii^ 1919; by 138,951 the ifoUowing year. 

 These figures illustrate very graphically the steady increase in 

 popular interest in the nation's playgrounds. A number of 

 factors have contributed to this. A combination of the "See 

 America First" movement and conditions of European travel 

 brought about by the World War has caused more people to 

 consider native resorts, in the planning of their vacations. 

 The development of good roads and the automobile have 

 played a part, as well as the great increase in recent years in 

 the outdoor cult. Finally, the parks are better advertised 

 than they used to be, not only by the Government but by pri- 

 vate agencies which have discovered that advertising the parks 

 in connection with their own business is not only good adver- 

 tising from the standpoint of attractiveness but from that of 

 increased returns as well. In addition to this, articles about 

 the parks and their wonders have of late enjoyed a tremen- 

 dous vogue in the popular magazines. The result of all this 

 has been that hundreds of people are familiar with the parks 

 to-day as compared with scores a few years ago. There is 

 every reason to believe that this interest now solidly estab- 

 lished will increase rather than diminish, that the parks will 

 be visited by increasing throngs year by year; and that the 

 visitors will be not alone from America but from other parts 

 of the world as well, as a knowledge of what these priceless 

 reservations contain becomes more widespread. 



