Niagara Falls 



1914 that the good work is completed. It is true, the principle of the 



w public preservation of scenic beauty has been permanently estab- 



lished, public opinion has been quickened and elevated, and many 

 permanent improvements of a more material character achieved; 

 but there is, nevertheless, still a great deal to do. On the Reser- 

 vation itself the work of preservation and maintenance must 

 always go on while beyond the Reservation there is still a large 

 field for endeavor. Only when the last untidy factory site has 

 been harmonized with its natural setting, and every power interest 

 has been brought to restrain itself that Niagara may be preserved, 

 when the " Reservation idea " has been extended to include all 

 the beauties of the Niagara river, will the work even approach 

 completion. 



It is, of course, vain to forecast the future and we shall not 

 attempt it. It is sufficient for our purposes to point out hopeful 

 beginnings which have been made. Preservation of the Falls is 

 assured to the extent of the provision made by the treaty with 

 Great Britain. The work of restoring the disfiguring sites held 

 by the manufacturing interests along the river has also been begun. 



All plans for further action are interesting chiefly for the elo- 

 quent testimony which they bear to the virility of the Niagara 

 preservation idea which was first effectively voiced thirty years 

 ago in the establishment of the State Reservation at Niagara. In 

 the persistence of that idea rather than in any particular scheme, 

 State or national, lies the hope of the future. The State Reserva- 

 tion at Niagara will have amply justified its continued existence 

 and total cost, in whatever terms that cost may be measured, if it 

 contributes ever so slightly to keep alive this Niagara sentiment, 

 and serves as an exemplar of what disinterested and efficient public 

 service and consistent and unselfish devotion to an ideal can bring 

 to pass. 



Summary 



Early in the literature of the Falls observant travellers noticed 

 with concern the increasing tendency to permit the use of the 



1172 



