The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn People, Plants And Animals ON JANUARY 5. 1 wrote a column in praise of Joseph Wood Krutch and his book Grand Canyon. which is a brilliant example of Krutchian...
...Our versatile amateur of things in general gives himself away in his discussion of the crowds in our national parks...
...we need more parks, more rangers, more scientists and greater provision for people's comfort...
...There are...
...as we all know, is a reincarnation of Henry D. Thoreau...
...However, under Mission 66 we shall be able so to plan and develop the several areas . . . that they will be protected for the use and enjoyment of all future generations...
...There have been times when the areas have been threatened by lack of adequate appropriations to administer and protect them...
...So I wrote: "There is in both Thoreau and Krutch an attitude toward human beings which I find unpleasant and dangerous...
...Superintendent of that heavenly spot, Crater Lake...
...Among other interesting things, he has this to say: "I am inclined to think that Krutch's real concern is the basic natural or land resource...
...I suppose all plans are compromises, but there is a difference . . . Krutch does not mention Mission 66...
...After explaining that he has no fear that the common people will destroy the beauty of the parks...
...But I don't think there is anything undemocratic in recognizing differences of taste or the minor rights of a minority...
...1 think that one should recognize as far as possible that the right to life is not an exclusive human right...
...Many animals have to be condemned to death and (possibly) a few human beings too...
...I have received from him two restrained but very effective letters...
...In the first of these he writes: "I most certainly do not resent crowds in the national parks...
...Wonderful as the parks are, they are not quite the same as genuine wilderness...
...If the parks are to be preserved from overuse or, as Director Conrad L. Wirth said, 'from being loved to death,' then, as you point out...
...I think, to a degree, we share his concern but not his seemingly deep-dyed pessimism...
...The second letter is from Thomas J. Williams...
...I am not even a vegetarian...
...In another passage our champion of the wilderness explains himself thus: "The truth is merely (1) that I am the kind of person who likes people least in crowds and, even in the case of social gatherings, prefers the small to the large...
...The first is from John S. McLaughlin, Superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park, the gorgeous piece of national real estate which inspired Krutch's exciting volume...
...and he calls our developments and facilities 'compromises.' Actually, our developments are based on master plans . . . which are drawn up after much study...
...Krutch has an accurate knowledge and deep love of outdoor things and, like Thoreau, he also has a quiet fear and suspicion of his fellow men...
...But toward the end of the column I got off my chest something which had been bothering me for a long time...
...Both of them are afraid of people...
...which you so ably covered in your series on the national parks...
...which is a brilliant example of Krutchian thinking and good writing...
...I have received letters on this subject from two of our park superintendents...
...But to deprive of life any creature capable of a real desire to live is a serious matter...
...Like his Concord prototype...
...Our author views with alarm the onward tramp of this mob...
...All I am saying is that the two cannot be successfully combined...
...The latter are supplements to the parks and are proposed as such in the pending Wilderness Bill...
...As you say, they were established to give as many people as possible at least a glimpse of nature...
...In another passage McLaughlin says of Krutch: "He has his doubts about 'developers' in the National Park Service...
...2) I don't believe that it is proper to regard other living things as merely for man's use...
...That doesn't mean that we don't often have to make a choice...
...It is plain that Krutch is thinking of preserving the woods and all their teeming life rather than of developing human beings...
...Considering the performance of the human race thus far, he has real doubts about the future...
...Don't be surprised if any day now he sets out to build a shack on the edge of some Walden pond though, making allowance for this frightful inflation, the building of it must be expected to require the expenditure of more than 28 dollars and 121/2 cents...
...Krutch, though the gentlest of souls, apparently is perfectly capable of defending himself...
...Williams goes on: "To date I think the National Park Service has done an exceptionally fine job of doing what Congress has ordered...
...In this respect, his center of interest seems to be different from mine and from that of the men who have developed our national park system...
...he explains, three sorts of nature spots, 'the wilderness area, the protected nature reserve and the recreation resort.' The first is for the small minority, the second for a larger group of the partially civilized, the third for the poor, dumb dopes who have never been taught to take care of things...
...We have land enough still in the U. S. to provide national parks...
...recreation areas and also wild regions...
Vol. 42 • March 1959 • No. 10
