28 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



NATIONAL PARKS— THE NEED OF THE FUTURE * 



By James Bryce. 



I have lived long enough in the United States and have 

 known the United States long enough, having come here for 

 the first time forty-two years ago, to feel just as much inter- 

 ested in all those questions that relate to your welfare, in city 

 and in country, as if I were one of your citizens, and I hope 

 you will allow me to speak to you with that freedom which you 

 would allow to one of your citizens. I do not think I need to 

 feel those limitations when discussing a subject of this kind, 

 so far removed from politics or any other controversial fields. 



There is one thing better even than the City Beautiful, and 

 that is the Country Beautiful. I have had a great deal of ex- 

 perience in England in dealing with these questions ; for some 

 years I was chairman^ and afterwards a member, of a society 

 for preserving commons and open spaces and public rights of 

 way, and member of another society for securing to the public 

 places of national and historic interest, and in the course of such 

 membership I have been led often to think of what is our duty 

 to the future, and of the benefits which the preservation of 

 places of natural beauty may confer on the community. That 

 is a problem which presents itself, not only in Great Britain, 

 but all over Europe, and what Europe is now is that towards 

 which you in America are tending. Europe is a populous over- 

 crowded continent ; you will some day be a populous and ulti- 

 mately perhaps even a crowded continent, and it is well to take 

 thought at once, before the overcrowding comes on, as to how 

 you will deal with the difficulties which we have had to deal 

 with in Europe, so that you may learn as much as possible from 

 our experience, and not find too late that the beauty and solitude 

 of nature have been snatched from you by private individuals. 



* An address delivered before the Eighth Annual Convention of the American 

 Civic Association, Baltimore, Maryland, November 20, 1912, the Hon. Walter L. 

 Fisher, Secretary of the Interior, presiding. The complete text of the address was 

 published in the Outlook, Dec. 14, 1912, 



