The Home Front

...Some of our best and most intelligent conservation advocates have expressed a fear that the millions of visitors to our national parks will unwittingly destroy some of their charms...

...The fathers of the Multiple Use Bill en-corporated in it this definite statement: "The establishment and maintenance of areas of wilderness are consistent with the purposes and provisions of this act...

...The cry has gone up that our very devotion to natural beauties is bringing about their destruction...

...Those who look at this bill, printed in the July 2 Congressional Record, will be interested in the definition of the word "wilderness": "A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain...

...But a good many of the citizens interested in the nation-wide effort to preserve and develop our great sections of forest and wilderness land have realized that this early law, and the various others which have been passed since, are more or less inadequate...

...Under the terms of the new bill it is, I suppose, possible for the Department of the Interior or the Department of Agriculture to lease areas under their control which can be utilized for the production of oil, lumber, minerals or for use in other ways—provided, of course, that the property is preserved for the enjoyment or use of future generations...

...On the day before the members of Congress scattered to their conventions or their vacations, Democratic Senator James E. Murray of Montana, that old warhorse of conservation measures, introduced and explained at length a new and amended version of the original Wilderness Bill which would bring the Wilderness System up to date...

...Senator Murray referred repeatedly to the fact that the Multiple Use Bill frequently made reference to the Wilderness System...

...Today I'm not writing a general report on what Congress has done since January and what has been left to do in the grand post-convention rush later on...

...The rude tread of the tramping mobs inevitably destroys dainty plants and scares away many a tiny animal...

...All that I propose to do is report on the present status and content of a hill on which I have already produced at least one fairly full argument...

...It is, in short, a place where a man can be alone...

...Senator Murray explained at the outset of his address that the proposed law is not at all in opposition to the Multiple Use Bill already passed by the present Congress...

...On August 25, 1916, Congress passed a bill entitled ''An Act to establish a National Park Service and for Other purposes" under the terms of which our magnificent system of national parks and monuments have been developed...

...Here are a few sentences which will give you a picture of what the new Wilderness Bill is all about: "In order to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness, there is hereby established a National Wilderness Preservation System to be composed of Federally owned areas in the United States and its territories and possessions . . . retaining their primeval character and influence and being managed for purposes consistent with their continued preservation as wilderness, for the public purposes of use and enjoyment by the people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness...

...2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a rugged, primitive and uncon-fined type of outdoor recreation...

...To deal with this situation there has been developed and gradually perfected what is called the National Wilderness Preservation System, generally referred to as the "Wilderness System...

...So much work has been expended upon this measure, and it is so carefully thought out, that it is to be hoped that the text of it will be widely distributed and the understanding of it will become general...

...As I understand the matter, "multiple use" of Government property provides for any productive and profitable utilization which does not diminish or destroy its permanent value...

...The fact that this point of view was kept in mind during debate on a bill obviously aimed at profitable use of public land shows how much progress our legislators have made in this field...

...An area of wilderness is further defined to mean "an area of undeveloped Federal land without permanent improvement or human habitation which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's works substantially unnoticeable...

...It was taken for granted from beginning to end that no use of Government land would be allowed if it would bring about the destruction of wilderness spots covered under the original Wilderness measure...