244 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



Congress toward this purchase. In order to make up the balance, Mr. 

 Mather secured the co-operation of the National Geographic Society, 

 which generously and patriotically appropriated $20,000 out of its treas- 

 ury, so that this splendid forest of monarchs might be preserved for all 

 time. 



NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 



The crowning act of last year's administration of the parks was the cre- 

 ation of the National Park Service, of which Mr. Mather has the fol- 

 lowing to say : 



The special legislation of greatest importance was the passage 

 of the National Park Service bill, providing for the establishment 

 of a bureau in Washington to administer as a properly coordinat- 

 ed system all of the national parks and the national monuments 

 under the jurisdiction of the Interior Department. This substi- 

 tutes efficiency for the former haphazard consideration of each 

 separate park by a small force in the office of the chief clerk of 

 the department, already burdened with numerous other important 

 duties. 



This measure provides for the appointment of a director and 

 assistant director as the executive officers of the bureau and a 

 small corps of clerks, stenographers, etc., all charged with the 

 performance of duties relating solely to the administration and 

 supervision of the national park system. It is an important step 

 forward which renders possible the realization of the manifest 

 destiny of our national parks as one economic asset. 



NEW NATIONAL PARKS 



Mr. Mather reports the creation of the new Lassen Volcanic National 

 Park in California, and the Hawaii National Park, which embraces the 

 craters of the three great volcanoes, Kilauea, Mauna Loa, and Hale- 

 akala, on the Hawaiian Islands. 



The bill for the creation of Mount McKinley National Park in Alaska 

 passed the Senate and is pending before the House. There is also a 

 bill pending providing for the extension of the Rocky Mountain Na- 

 tional Park. Recent Federal legislation following up state legislation 

 has vested the Federal Government with exclusive jurisdiction in the 

 Yellowstone, Mount Rainier, and Crater Lake national parks, and pro- 

 vision has been made for the United States Commissioners who will sit 

 as local judges to punish violations of the rules and regulations. Mr. 

 Mather points out the importance of having similar steps taken in con- 

 nection with the parks in California and Colorado, but exclusive juris- 

 diction over these parks must first be ceded to the Federal Government 

 by legislatures of these states.* 



The Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mount Rainier, Sequoia, and General 

 Grant parks have shown by the revenues of this last year that they are 

 paying their own way as far as administrative cost is concerned, and 

 when they have been thoroughly developed by proper roads and trails 

 they ought to become self-supporting. 



*This is most desirable, and is something that the Sierra Club should work to 

 accomplish as far as California is concerned. — Editor. 



