ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, Washington, October 15, 1919. SIR: In submitting this third annual report of the National Park Service, which covers the tourist season that has just come to an end, and the fiscal affairs of the bureau for the year ended June 30 last, I am more than pleased to advise you that in every branch of our activities successful results, directly beneficial to the national parks, have been obtained. On the other hand, legislation enacted during the year has added two new national parks of great distinction to the system, and has opened new avenues of development that will make our future administrative efforts more effective. Other legislation which failed of enactment, on account of the accumulation of business at the close of the last Congress, passed either the Senate or the House of Representatives unanimously, thus indicating a generally favorable sentiment toward meritorious national-park measures. However, quite aside from our administration, protection, and improvement of the parks and the extension and advancement of the system by Congress, the enormous use of these great playgrounds is worthy of first consideration because this is the factor that determines the success or failure of what the Government is doing for and with the national parks. Never before has there been such travel in America, and never before have so many people toured the parks. Released from the strain of war activities, and freed from the power of sentiment against vacation touring, there was a general desire to move about the country for recreation, for amusement, in search of new business opportunities, and oftentimes simply to get a change of scene. It was this overwhelming ambition to get far from the activities of the previous two years that prompted thousands to go from coast to coast and through many national parks in their automobiles, using hotels as they traveled, or, as was very often the case, taking their own equipment and supplies and camping along the highways. Likewise, other thousands sought the service of the trains to take them away to new scenes and they came to the national parks from every corner of the United States. Travelers from abroad put in appearance once more, and all combined to make this the greatest travel season in the history of the Nation. BUREAU OF SERVICE HELPS. The attitude of the United States Railroad Administration toward travel influenced profoundly the general interest in making extensive trips. By sharp contrast with its firm policy of discouraging travel during the war, it took the opposite stand soon after the cessation of hostilities, with the result that winter resorts of the South and West enjoyed extremely heavy patronage. Continuing this policy, the administration, through its passenger traffic committees, authorized extensive advertising of the summer resorts of the country, with special emphasis on the national parks, because they were public possessions and under the control of the Government. The promotion of park travel, of course, fell naturally to the western committee and the bureau of service, national parks and monuments, with headquarters in Chicago. This service bureau had been created nearly a year before for the purpose of coordinating the distribution of park-travel information, advising ticket agents regarding ways and means of reaching the parks, and forming the point of contact between the National Park Service and its business interests on the one hand and the Railroad Administration on the other. The war had prevented the achievement of most of the results desired, but this bureau was well organized and prepared to perform its functions when changed conditions made the resumption of travel promotion advisable. It planned a series of national-park booklets, which were prepared and published in cooperation with a committee on advertising under the supervision of the western passenger committee. Differing from the usual railroad folder in shape, and vastly more attractive, this series of booklets on the national parks became at once the most powerful inducement to travel in the parks that had appeared since the publication of the National Parks Portfolio some three years ago, and was more effective than the portfolio because issued earlier in the season than the older series. Not only did the beautiful series of railroad booklets greatly increase train travel to the national parks, but it very appreciably influenced automobile travel. I dwell upon the beauty and effectiveness of these booklets because I am in a position to appraise their value and likewise the work of the Bureau of Service in distributing them with the other travel data throughout the length and breadth of the land. I think this bureau should be one of the institutions of the Railroad Administration to survive the return of the lines to private operation. I think the series of national-park publications-as well illustrated and as well written as any railroad publication issued in recent yearsmight be reissued each year for distribution by the bureau and by the National Park Service, because we can and do use this series with great effectiveness. A NATIONAL TRAVEL BUREAU. With a coordinated railroad travel bureau and a division of the National Park Service charged solely with the encouragement of American travel by rail and automobile working together and in harmony with all other agencies interested in the promotion of touring |