BEAUTY
America has another resource that differs from all the others, and yet
is no less valuable to us as a nation, for it is upon natural beauty
that we must depend to attract visitors and settlers from other
countries, and also to develop love of country in our own people, and to
arouse in them all the higher sentiments and ideals.
The love of romance and poetry is awakened only by the sight of
beautiful objects, and that nation will produce the highest class of
citizens which has most within it to kindle these lofty ideas. The
savage cares only for the comfort of his body, but as civilization
advances, man devotes more and more thought to those pleasures that come
only through his mind and the cultivation of his tastes.
The United States is particularly fortunate in this respect, for here is
everything to inspire a love of beauty. There is the beauty of changing
seasons, of our wonderful autumn forest coloring, of rivers, mountains,
lakes, sea, and shore.
In addition to the beauty of our landscapes, which is everywhere to be
found, there are many special beauties which are among the world's
wonder-places, and which are visited yearly by thousands of sight-seers,
and each year they attract a greater number of visitors from other
lands. Some of the most remarkable of these are Niagara Falls, the
Yosemite Valley, with its crowning glory, the Yosemite Falls, the
Hetch-Hetchy Falls, Mammoth Cave, the Garden of the Gods, the Grand
Cañon of the Colorado, the Agatized Forests of Arizona, Yellowstone
Park, The Natural Bridge of Virginia, Great Salt Lake, and dozens of
others, less wonderful, but scarcely less beautiful, and equal to the
most talked-of beauties of Europe, such as the Palisades of the Hudson,
Lake Champlain, the Shenandoah Valley, the Dalles of Oregon, Pike's
Peak, Mount Rainier, Lookout Mountain, the Adirondacks, and the entire
Rocky Mountain region.
To these must be added the relics of ancient civilization, the homes of
the Cliff Dwellers, the work of the Mound Builders, and such fragments
as still remain of the occupation in various times and places of certain
Indian tribes, and of the Norsemen and the Spaniards.
All these are to be valued for their beauty or historic interest, and
are also valuable as a source of wealth to the community.
The money spent on tourist-travel in Europe is said to be more than
half a billion dollars a year. This vast amount is spent because in
Europe there is so much to delight the eye, because the cities are made
beautiful with artistic buildings filled with art treasures, because
historic places are carefully preserved, because the villages are neat
and well-kept, and the intensive farming which is practised almost
everywhere leaves no waste places to grow up with weeds, and lie
neglected.
There are parts of Europe, of course, where this is not true, but they
are not included in the line of tourist-travel, and in general it may be
said that Europe is visited almost solely because of its beauty:--the
natural beauty that man has preserved, the beauty that he has created,
or the relics of past greatness.
Modern Greece would attract few visitors for its own sake. It is the
ruins of a mighty past,--the Acropolis at Athens and the places made
famous in mythology and literature draw thousands to its shores every
year, and add greatly to the wealth and prosperity of the country.
The same thing is true of America wherever we have preserved and made
beautiful our natural scenery. During three months in the summer, the
New York Central Railroad derives about $200,000 in fares from its
Niagara business alone. Since it became a state reservation in 1885,
more than seventeen million persons have visited Niagara, and the
amount of money that has been spent there at hotels, for carriages,
automobiles, side-trips, souvenirs, etc., is almost beyond calculation.
In the Adirondack Park there is between $10,000,000 and $15,000,000
invested in hotels and cottages. The 15,000 clerks and helpers receive
about $1,000,000 in wages, the railroads receive another $1,000,000 in
fares, and hotel guests spend between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000. All of
these advantages to the region are entirely apart from the practical
uses of the forest.
These are examples which show the great amount of wealth which can come
from preserving our natural beauties, and the same conditions exist
everywhere, not only in the state and national parks, but wherever some
beautiful spot has been set aside by a city, a railroad company, or some
private enterprise. People flock to these resorts in large numbers for
rest or recreation, and to satisfy their love for the beautiful, and the
result is a gain in health and morals, more desire on the part of those
who visit them to make their own surroundings beautiful, and at the same
time a great gain in money value to the city or company that promotes
such an enterprise.
Most of the larger cities of the United States have given particular
attention to the subject of public parks during recent years. They are
the breathing places for the dwellers in the city, often the only place
where children can have fresh air and plenty of exercise, and the parks
constitute one of the greatest attractions to draw summer visitors to
the city.
Nearly all steam and electric railway companies own some park or
pleasure resort from which they derive a large income in fares, and many
steamboat companies find their largest profit from their excursion
boats.
All these facts show clearly that if we consider only the gain in money,
it is altogether a wise policy to include natural beauty among our
national resources, and to conserve it carefully, while if we look at it
from the larger standpoint of preserving for future generations the same
beauties that we enjoy, the need of such conservation is still more
urgent.
In our future development the United States will largely be made over.
We shall no longer have the same natural conditions that we have had in
the early years of our history, and the physical appearance of the
country will grow better or worse each generation.
It is possible for us to make America the most beautiful land the world
has ever seen, for we have the natural beauty, and greater knowledge in
setting about the work of building than has ever been possessed by any
other nation during its time of greatest growth.
We shall go far toward realizing our ideal of a beautiful America if we
understand that the conservation of our resources means beauty, and that
waste means ugliness. Proper conservation of our mineral resources will
include the removal of the ugly, unsightly piles of culm, slag, and
other refuse that lie about the mouth of the mines, and disfigure some
of our most beautiful mountain scenery, for, as we have shown elsewhere,
this should be used and not wasted. The proper use of coal would solve
the smoke problem of cities, one of the worst foes of cleanliness and
beauty, and the use of water-power would serve the same purpose. The
complete utilization of our water resources that has been suggested
would make all our waterways contribute greatly to the beauty and
attractiveness of the landscape.
In conserving our forests we not only increase our timber supply, but
add one of the greatest of all beauties, the trees which give variety
and tone to every picture that our eyes rest upon. We shall have the
shady roads, the long green hill-slopes, the quiet woodlands, the glory
of autumn coloring, the delight of blossoming orchards.
Conservation of the soil, and utilization of every part of the land
mean even more. Picture the contrast between a country where the
hillsides are worn into gullies, where rocks are everywhere to be seen
cropping above the barren soil, where the crops are scanty, the
vegetation stunted; and one where every field yields a rich harvest,
where the grain hangs heavy and golden, where every wayside nook holds a
flower, where there are no neglected fence-corners, no piles of
rubbish,--what we truly call "a smiling landscape." Lastly, in
conserving health, we do more toward promoting personal beauty and
advancing the standard of the race than in any other way.
We should not be content, however, with the beauty that comes only from
the conservation of our other resources, but should have a definite plan
for the conservation of beauty as a valuable resource in itself.
The city of Washington should be made the center of this movement toward
national beauty. There is now an organized effort on the part of those
in charge of the erection of public buildings, to make Washington the
most beautiful capital in the world, and a model for other cities.
The federal government should set aside as national parks all of our
greatest natural wonders, as Yellowstone Park is now held.
The states should follow the same line and set apart in the same way
those objects of lesser interest, either natural or historic, which are
to be found in every state--those that are not of sufficient importance
to merit national recognition, but that will add interest to the state
as a place for tourists to visit.
Few states are visited in this way more than is Massachusetts, and it is
largely because not only the state, but the various communities have
preserved historical places, buildings and objects so carefully, have
erected monuments to commemorate them; and have thrown these various
objects of interest open to the public free of charge. These communities
in turn have gained the original expenditure many times over from the
money spent by the steady stream of visitors.
There has been a great movement toward the beautifying of cities and
villages in the past few years. Besides the good work done by park
boards in cities there has been a great improvement in the matter of
cleaner streets, better sidewalks, the planting of more shade trees, and
a far greater attention to the beautifying of private grounds. The
adorning of front yards and porches with vines and flowers is increasing
enormously every year.
Many causes have been at work to produce this result: the broadening
influence of travel, which brings people in touch with what is being
done in other places to promote public beauty, the work of schools,
newspaper and magazine articles, and more time and money to spend on
luxuries,--even the post-card, which makes a souvenir view of every spot
of local beauty or interest; but probably no other one agency has
produced such good results in public beauty as has the woman's club
which has taken up this line of work.
The "cleaning-up" movement, with a public house-cleaning day twice a
year when all refuse is carted away, and streets, alleys and back-yards
cleaned, had its origin in this way. The care and beautifying of
cemeteries is another branch of the work.
In many places, flower and vegetable seeds are distributed free or at a
nominal cost among the school children, prizes are offered for the best
garden, the largest vegetables, the most attractive back-yard, the best
arranged flower-bed, and other good results; the work is examined by a
committee, and the prizes awarded at the end of the season either by the
club or by merchants who have become interested in the contest.
This provides the children wholesome outdoor work and exercise
throughout the summer, and promotes a pleasant rivalry among them,
besides increasing their knowledge of plants, and the results have been
found to be far-reaching, for not only the pupils, but their parents as
well, are interested in neater, more orderly methods of living, and in
beautifying their homes.
In the movement for public beauty, as in all other progress, it is the
work of individuals that counts most. Every house that is built with a
thought for its beauty, every home, farm-building and fence kept in good
repair, every neat back-yard and flower-surrounded home has its part in
making America more beautiful, and this influence in countless homes is
certain to count in the making of better citizens.
A country where beauty meets the eye at every turn will invite the
tourist and the home-seeker, will be deeply loved by its own people, and
will be an inspiration to poetry and art. It rests largely with the
people of to-day to decide whether we shall make of our own land such an
ideal place.