357 Fourth Avenue, N.Y. 

 April 22), 1918. 



The Hon. Swagar Sherley, 

 Chairman, Appropriations Committee, 

 House of Representatives, 

 Washington, D.C. 



My dear Sir: 



Secretary Lane, of the Department of the Interior, has asked 

 the Congress to make an appropriation of fifty thousand dollars 

 for the care and development of the Sieur de Monts National 

 Monument. This w^onderful part of Mt. Desert Island is really 

 a national park, though called a "monument" because of the law 

 under which it was accepted as a gift to the nation. It includes 

 some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. It combines 

 in wonderful variety a rugged sea-coast, exquisite lakes, peace- 

 ful meadows, and towering cliffs. Primeval forests fill its valleys 

 and stretch up the lower slopes of the highest mountains on our 

 Atlantic coast toward their bare, glacier-scarred summits. It is 

 a playground of Nature's making, showing her best work in things 

 animate and inanimate. Its woods and marshes are an ideal refuge 

 for birds and wild game. Almost every plant known to the tem- 

 perate zone in eastern North America is found growing there. 



The Sieur de Monts Monument is within a day's journey of 

 a third of the population of the United States, lying within 

 easy reach by rail or water from every town and city in the East. 

 Already it is visited yearly by more people than go to any other 

 of our national parks, except only the Arkansas Hot Springs and 

 Rocky Mountain Park. 



During this past winter poachers have been unhindered by the 

 Government in slaughtering deer and killing the grouse sheltered 

 in the park, and timber has been cut without license. Such 

 destruction must be prevented and the forest guarded against 

 disease and fire. It needs paths, wood roads, and proper entrances, 

 for protection and to make its beauties more accessible. 



As head of one of the buying sections of the War Department 

 I realize as many cannot, the huge sums which must now be de- 

 voted to the national defense. Part of this defense, however, 

 consists in keeping our people at their highest efficiency. This 



