745 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
There is, then, hope for the parks. 
The Congress will not refuse, I am 
sure, to enact legislation creating a 
bureau of national parks, to the custody 
of which all the nation’s pearls of great 
price shall be entrusted. Under such 
a bureau, aided by a commission of na- 
tional prominence and scope, I predict 
that there will be undertaken not only 
such ordering of the parks as will vastly 
increase their use and their usefulness, 
but such a survey of the land as will 
result in the establishment of many more 
new national parks, before it is too late. 
Niagara, never more in danger than at 
this moment, must eventually, if it is 
to be a cataract and not a catastrophe, 
come under the federal mantle as a na- 
tional park. In no other way can Amer- 
ica be sacred from the lasting disgrace 
that now threatens our most notable 
natural wonder. A nation that can af- 
ford a Panama Canal cannot afford a 
dry Niagara ! 
There is something inspiring in the 
thought of a national park sacred to 
the memory of the great liberator, and 
adding to the beauty and dignity of the 
city in which he poured out his last 
full measure of devotion. The Lincoln 
Memorial National Park, joining the 
lovely forests between Washington and 
Baltimore and Annapolis to the Poto- 
mac, would be a thousand times more 
fitting tribute to the glory of our first 
martyr than a mere commercial high- 
way. 
He whose genius made the nation, 
and whose wisdom planned this Federal 
City to be a fitting capital for a hun- 
dred millions of free people when yet 
there were but a scant three millions 
clinging to the Atlantic seaboard ought 
also to be thus memorialized. Why 
shall not Mount Vernon and its envir- 
ons come into a great Washington Me- 
morial National Park which shall link 
together anew, as it reaches the Poto- 
mac, the fame of our two greatest pres- 
idents, and forever blot out a line once 
fought over in civil warfare? 
Nothing is more certain than that 
eventually the nation must come to own 
memorial areas which shall serve a 
double purpose in their tributes to the 
departed great and their beneficience 
to the living. Delay means but en- 
hanced and compounded cost. With 
such a truly patriotic provision for the 
future as well as the present as would 
be involved in the creation of a great 
national park system, available to the 
people of the east as well as to those 
of the west, our federal scenic posses- 
sions would come to attract the travel 
of the world. Inadequate though they 
are now, inaccessible as they are now, 
unadmiiiistered as they are now, 
our national parks have added very 
definitely to the resources of our peo- 
ple, and are well worth while. When 
they shall have been given the atten- 
tion that is in the minds of our presi- 
dent and our secretary of the interior, 
they will increase in efficiency, in beauty, 
in extent, and in benefits open to all the 
people, so that they will even more be 
entirely worth while. 
AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION IN CONVENTION 
The seventh annual convention of the 
American Civic Association was held 
at the New Willard Hotel, Washing- 
ton, D. C., December 13, 14 and 15. 
The president of the association, J. 
Horace McFarland, of Harrisburg, Pa., 
presided. The morning session was de- 
voted to an address of welcome and 
to the subject of “Related Civic Ad- 
vance.” 
On behalf of District Commissioner 
Cuno H. Rudolph, who was called to 
the Capitol, “A Washington Welcome" 
was extended to the convention by Dr. 
William Tindall, secretary to the board 
of commissioners. 
In the beginning of the “related civic 
advance” meeting President McFarland 
introduced J. Lockie Wilson, secretary 
of the Ontario Horticultural Associa- 
tion and the Canadian vice president of 
the American Civic Association, who 
conveyed “goods news from Canada.” 
On behalf of the National Municipal 
League, the Hon. William Dudley 
Foulke, of Richmond, Inch, spoke on 
“The Daily Life of Frankfort.” 
At 4 P. M., William Gladstone Steel 
gave an informal illustrated talk on 
“The Beauty-spots of Oregon,” with 
partial reference to Crater Lake Na- 
tional Park. 
WEDNESDAY EVENING. 
The session was opened promptly, 
Walter L. Fisher, Secretary of the In- 
terior, presiding. In his introduction 
he said that the national parks, like 
Topsey, have “just growed.” 
"There is no-w no consistent legislation 
concerning the parks," he continued; "in 
fact, there is a wide divergence in the 
statutes under which they are adminis- 
tered. In the Interior Department we have 
no machinery for the conduct of the af- 
fairs of the parks, and no authority to 
develop machinery by which co-ordination 
may be secured. It has been possible to 
secure some publicity, because we have 
found the public is greedy for informa- 
tion about the parks. We have been able 
to say that the chief clerk of the depart- 
found the public is greedy for informa- 
in determining questions of policy, but that 
is as far as we can go. 
"We ought to have some sort of cen- 
tral authority — a bureau which might act 
not for one of the parks alone, but for 
all of them;" and at this point Secretary 
Fisher quoted from the annual message 
sent to Congress a year ago by President 
Taft, in which the Chief Executive said: 
"Our national parks have become so ex- 
tensive and involve so much detail of ac- 
tion in their control that it seems there 
ought to be legislation creating a bureau 
for their care and control." 
The president, J. Horace McFarland, 
then made his annual address, the sub- 
ject being “Are National Parks Worth 
While.” This address is printed in full 
on another page. 
“What National Parks Mean to the 
West” was the topic of the address of 
Hon. Reed Smoot, United States sen- 
ator from Utah. 
“Separate appropriations are now 
made for each park, making it impos- 
sible for the Secretary of the Interior 
to concentrate the efforts of his de- 
partment in their behalf,” the senator 
said, and in this connection he referred 
to the subject matter of a bill, which 
he had introduced in Congress, which, 
he said, would correct this evil and 
would also result in a saving. 
The president of the United States 
was then announced and with the 
audience laughed at the stories of wild 
life in the national parks told by Enos 
A. Mills, of Estes Park, Colorado. 
President Taft then spoke of the 
work pertaining to the national parks. 
Herbert W. Gleason, of Boston, 
Mass., gave an illustrated talk on the 
scenic beauties of the national parks, 
particularly as relating to Alaska, Yel- 
lowstone Park, California, the Grand 
Canyon and the Yosemite Valley. His 
pictures were accurately colored and 
exceedingly beautiful. They had spe- 
cial reference to the legislation pro- 
posed. 
THURSDAY SESSIONS. 
The session was called to order by 
the president, who said that the busi- 
ness end of the association was made 
as simple as possible and that the as- 
sociation had passed the probationary 
“class meeting” stage and instead of 
educating the members of the associa- 
tion chiefly by bulletins and publica- 
tions, it was doing a much larger work 
through the public press in educating 
the public at large and influencing leg- 
islation. 
The annual report of the secretary 
consisted of a brief outline of the 
strenuous efforts to save Niagara Falls 
and other work which had been per- 
formed along the line of civic better- 
ment. 
The statement of the treasurer, Wil- 
liam B. Howland, of New York, was 
read by Harold J. Howland. 
The following officers were unani- 
mously nominated and elected : 
