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.