OWNERSHIP OF SCENERY 



And so we began blindly several years 

 ago with the Yellowstone National Park, 

 and now we have a certain claim on Niagara 

 Falls, the Big Trees, and a considerable list 

 of national parks. For, though many of 

 these tracts haye been reserved ostensibly 

 for forestry purposes, everyone knows that 

 their chief value is their scenic beauty. 

 Besides these national reserves, certain of 

 the states have established similar invest- 

 ments in scenery. Massachusetts, Wis- 

 consin and New York have taken a praise- 

 worthy leadership in this field, but other 

 states are falling into line. No state is so 

 poor and mean that it has not some tracts 

 of seashore, lake shore, river or forest land 

 worth looking at; and if it has such land, 

 then the citizens of the state have an 

 inalienable right (as the Declaration calls 

 it) to enjoy that scenery. 



A few years ago some public-spirited 

 men in Massachusetts waked up to an un- 

 pleasant discovery. They found that the 

 growing wealth and the increasing popula- 

 tion of the state were crowding heavily 

 upon the ownership of land. Already 

 practically the entire shore line where the 

 Bay State met the Atlantic Ocean was 



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