d development of
its new-found economic asset. The American public has discovered
America, and no one who knows the American public doubts for a moment
what it will do with it.

II

The idea still widely obtains that our national parks are principally
playgrounds. A distinguished member of Congress recently asked: "Why
make these appropriations? More people visited Rock Creek Park here in
the city of Washington last Sunday afternoon than went to the Yosemite
all last summer. The country has endless woods and mountains which cost
the Treasury nothing."

This view entirely misses the point. The national parks are
recreational, of course. So are state, county and city parks. So are
resorts of every kind. So are the fields, the woods, the seashore, the
open country everywhere. We are living in an open-air age. The nation of
outdoor livers is a nation of power, initiative, and sanity. I hope to
see the time when available State lands everywhere, when every square
mile from our national forest reserve, when even many private holdings
are made accessible and comfortable, and become habited with summer
trampers and campers. It is the way to individual power and national
efficiency.

But the national parks are far more than recreational areas. They are
the supreme examples. They are the gallery of masterpieces. Here the
visitor enters in a holier spirit. Here is inspiration. They are also
the museums of the ages. Here nature is still creating the earth upon a
scale so vast and so plain that even the dull and the frivolous cannot
fail to see and comprehend.

This is no distinction without a difference. The difference is so marked
that few indeed even of those who visit our national parks in a
frivolous or merely recreational mood remain in that mood. The spirit of
the great places brooks nothing short of silent reverence. I have seen
men unconsciously lift their hats. The mind strips itself of affairs as
one sheds a coat. It is the hour of the spirit. One returns to daily
living with a springier step, a keener vision, and a broader horizon for
having worshipped at the shrine of the Infinite.

III

The Pacific Coast Expositions of 1915 marked the beginning of the
nation's acquaintance with its national parks. In fact, they were the
occasion, if not the cause, of the movement for national parks
development which found so quickly a country-wide response, and which is
destined to results of large importance to individua