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Sierra Club Bulletin 



1912, $311,444.32; in 1913, $359,481.45, and in 1914, $334,914.32. Glacier 

 National Park in 1913, $161,510.87, and in 1914, $155,716.14. Mount Ra- 

 nier National Park in 1912, $56,735.93 ; in 1913, $66,942.76, and in 1914, 

 $61,078.08. 



Financial reports of concessioners in the parks for the season of 1915 

 have not yet been received in the department, but in view of the large 

 tourist travel to the far West initiated by the expositions held in Cali- 

 fornia, it is anticipated that marked increases in gross receipts by na- 

 tional-park concessioners will be noted. 



Third national-park conference: In prior annual reports attention 

 has been directed to the very satisfactory results obtained from bring- 

 ing together in conference the various park superintendents for the pur- 

 pose of discussing the many difficult problems presented in the adminis- 

 tration of these reservations. In March of the present year the third 

 conference of superintendents was held at Berkeley, Cal., under the im- 

 mediate direction of the assistant to the secretary, at which there were 

 in attendance other representatives of this department, representatives 

 of the Departments of Agriculture and War, of the transcontinental 

 railways, of many of the concessioners in the parks, as well as a num- 

 ber of other persons interested in national park matters. Questions were 

 discussed pertaining to hotel accommodations, sanitation, transportation, 

 construction of roads, trails, and bridges, forestry, fire protection, pro- 

 tection of game, and other phases of park administration. A detailed re- 

 port of the conference will be published by the department. 



The consensus of opinion at this conference as well as of those con- 

 ferences held in 1911 and 1912, was that as many of the problems of park 

 management were substantially the same throughout the several na- 

 tional parks, their supervision should be centralized or grouped together 

 under a single administrative bureau specifically charged with such 

 work. The conference developed many instances where economy and 

 efficiency would be increased by a central administration of all the 

 parks. For instance, the law does not permit the resident engineer of the 

 Yosemite to be utilized at times in any other national park. A temporary 

 surplusage of service or equipment can not be used to meet a corre- 

 sponding need elsewhere. Without a central administration the national 

 parks can not be handled together, like departments of one business, for 

 the good of all. 



Bills to create a national park service have heretofore been intro- 

 duced in Congress, but none has as yet been enacted into law. 



Appropriations and revenues: The total of appropriations made by 

 Congress for protection and improvement of these parks during the year, 

 expendable under this department, was $283,590, and the total revenues 

 received from concessions in all the parks was $81,705.70. 



Automobiles in the parks: Automobiles have heretofore been admit- 

 ted under strict regulations governing travel of the roads to the Mount 

 Rainier, Crater Lake, Glacier, Mesa Verde, General Grant, Piatt, and 

 Wind Cave national parks ; over the Giant Forest Road, in Sequoia Na- 



