also true. They are believed to be inspiring patriotically and spiritually, to say nothing of their unquestioned value to the health and strength of those who visit them, which is true. But there is another reason for their development, namely that they constitute an economic asset which, when understood, exploited and developed, will add substantially to the wealth of the Nation. Of the sixteen National Parks on the continent of North America, eight or nine are of the first scenic order. Certain others, created some years ago in response to local or other inadequate demand, while legitimate governmental reservations, are not "National Parks" in the trade-mark meaning of the term which the new National Park Service seeks to establish. In these eight or nine National Parks the United States possesses more scenery of sublimity and variety than is readily aecessible in all the rest of the world. Yellowstone National Park, for instance, is unique. The rest of the world together cannot equal its geysers and one must go to Iceland and New Zealand to find the next in rank. And Yellowstone is also a greater wild animal preserve, by far, than the world elsewhere possesses. Glacier National Park is unique. The only other Algonkian rock exposure of equal importance lies on the other side of the world. The erosion of unguessable centuries has carved her mountains into fantastic shapes and her rocks look their thousand thousand years. Except for Mont Blanc and certain other extraordinary individual features, Glacier National Park alone can more than match the Swiss Alps. If there is another single-peak glacier system in the same class with Mount Rainier, from whose summit sweep twenty-eight great glaciers, it has not yet been reported in tourist routes. Crater Lake, which fills with water of unbelievable blue the hole which Mount Mazama left when it slipped down through its own rim into earth's depth, has no known peer. The Yosemite Valley is acknowledged incomparable. The giant trees of the Sequoia National Park grow under no other flag than ours. Mount McKinley rises 20,300 feet above the sea and 17,300 feet above the level of its foot a world record. The Grand Canyon of the Colorado is the most stupendous example of the sublimity of erosion in the known world. And all of these are tapped by one or more great railroads, are accessible by automobiles and are equipped with hotels and public camps which, when not equal to the best, are at least comfortably livable and of moderate charge. One may journey through Canada, Norway, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and the far Himalayas, and in all together will find no such range of scenic sublimity as in our own land. The National Park service feels that this great asset should be developed and that the American people who are possessed with the Alpine fallacy and who spend millions a year upon European scenery, should be informed of their own possessions. Switzerland has made a national business of her scenery. Many years ago she discovered that mountain tops were as profitable as factories, that lake shores could be made to pay like water fronts. Switzerland is credited with having spent a million dollars a year, up to the beginning of the great war, in advertising her wares in other lands. Switzerland's income from foreign travel has been estimated by the Canadian Government at $150,000,000 a year sales of transportation, board and lodging only; and of this America has contributed more than any one other nation. Then Canada has developed six National Parks, every one of which is equalled, kind for kind, and most of them many times excelled, by one or two of our own National Parks — with several other kinds untouched by her competition. Mr. J. B. Harkin, Commissioner of Dominion Parks, says in his report for 1914: "Nothing attracts tourists like National Parks. Therefore National Parks provide the chief means of bringing into Canada a stream of tourist gold. With the natural attractions and wonders possessed by Canadian parks in particular and by Canada in general it seems obvious that a proper and adequate development of Dominion parks means that millions of dollars annually will be brought into Canada by tourists." An analysis of the registration tables of a hotel in one of the Canadian National Parks for 1913 shows the sources of guests as follows: Canadians... Foreigners not from United States. 1025 461 3571 The percentage proportion roughly is Canadians, twenty per cent; foreigners not from the United States, nine per cent; citizens of the United States, seventy-one per cent; and it is probable that this proportion will carry through all the Canadian National Park. The financial value of this tourist travel to Canada is shown by Mr. W. T. Robson of the Canadian Travel Association who thus quotes Canada's income resources for 1913: Canada has brought this about by the application of sound and energetic business methods, by cooperation of Government, railroad, and business interests, and by good advertising. For years Canada has entertained American newspaper and magazine writers, without expense to them, in her National Parks. Sometimes she has invited large parties for long periods. Every year she entertains many as individuals. Writers as a class are not prosperous and few find the money to see the National Parks of their own land. That is the reason why Lake Louise in Canada is more celebrated in the United States than any one of a dozen lakes in our own Glacier National Park; why hundreds of thousands of Americans who never heard of our Sierra Nevada hope devoutly to see the Canadian Rockies before they die. Last summer Canada placed a special train at the disposal of a celebrated American lecturer and his four guests for the entire season, all expenses paid, even to photographic plates and motion picture film. Last summer also Canada furnished another special car free to an American advertising bureau. The motion picture houses of the United States are filled with pictures of the Canadian Rockies at this time, and a corps of salaried lecturers is traveling through our land. All this in war time! The United States on the contrary has no appropriations in any way available for advertising our National Parks even to our own people. There is no fund even to purchase lantern slides. It is not possible to purchase a foot of National Parks motion picture film with public money. A few thousand dollars may be spent in the Government Printing Office for information circulars. And that is all. The resource possibilities of this great undeveloped, almost unknown asset, were it possible to advertise it, are inestimable. In 1913 the annual revenue from tourist travel in France was $500,000,000 150,000,000 In 1898, 93,602 Americans visited Europe; in 1903, 140,669; in 1908, 200,447. The figures are those of Sir George Paish, Editor of the Statist, and are quoted from an English periodical. They represent an annual increase for ten years of more than ten per cent. The United States has collected no official figures, but Dr. Edward Ewing Pratt, Chief of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, stated in a recent address that 286,586 Americans visited Europe in 1914, showing an increasing proportion since 1908. Sir George Paish estimated that Americans traveling abroad spent an average of $1000 each, and he compared our outflow of $200,000,000 in 1908 with our income from European travel the same year of $30,000,000. Carrying Dr. Paish's estimate down. to 1914, Dr. Pratt estimated American expenditures for European travel that year at $286,000,000. But later estimates of average expense exceed the thousand dollars which Sir George Paish guessed in 1908. The Canadian Government estimates that American tourists spent $350,000,000 in European travel as far back as 1910, but this probably also included Canadian travelers. Well informed men have approximated that figure for European travel from the United States alone in more recent years. A New York financial newspaper estimated in 1915 that, including purchases of dress, jewelry and works of art incidental to travel, the American exodus to Europe might easily cost the country $500,000,000 per year. And until stopped by the war, this same European exodus had been increasing for fifteen years at a rising proportion! What part of all this is lured abroad by scenery it is of course impossible to estimate. The great majority of travelers doubtless plan to see the scenery of England, France, Italy and Switzerland as part of their journey. It is known that there has been a large American exodus to the Alps and the Tyrol and the Italian lakes alone every summer. It is known also that America has been by far Switzerland's best customer, to say nothing of contributing much the largest income of the Canadian Rockies. The immediate problem of the National Park Service of the United States, then, is to keep at home many millions a year of these outgoing hundreds of millions, and to draw to this land many millions a year of foreign money by the lure of our incomparable National Parks. NATIONAL FORESTS Total Areas by States On November 30, 1916, the United States Government owned 267 National Forests, comprising 155,860,202 acres, including those acquired under the Weeks law. They are located in the following states and territories: The areas marked with an asterisk (*) were acquired under the Weeks law and aggregate 706,974 acres. The government |