Evening Star Newspaper, June 2, 1929, Page 96

THE SUNDAY e e e e e = e Do e T STAR, WASHINGTON, D € !!]NF 2, 1920 PART 7. Snow and an August day. Crossing Mazuma Ridge on Skyline Trail in Rainier National Park. New Director of Na- tional Service, Mr. Albright, Is One of the Youngest Bu- reau Chicftains. BY ISABELLE FLORENCE STORY. NE of the most interesting of Federal Government officials to interview is Horace M. Albright, the new director of the National Park Service, that bu- yeau of the Interior Department which has charge of the administration and protection of the Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and other national parks. The service is one of the youngest bureaus of the Government, so it is fitting that it should have one of the young- est chiefs—and Mr. Albright celebrated his thirty-ninth birthday just before his appoint- ment as director early in January. A tall, broad-shouldered son of the West, he is very proud of the fact that he was born and raised in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where, as a young lad, he often rode with the forest rangers, in the days when the Forest Service was a bureau of the Interior Depart- ment. He says of himself, “I was born a ranger and I'll always be one.” In talking to Mr. Albright, several charac- teristics immediately impress one very favor- mbly. First, there is the cordial welcome, with the serious face breaking into a singularly winning smile as the director shakes hands with a convincing grip. Then there is his enthusiasm as he talks about parks—about the work already done, and, more important still to him, about the needs of the future. He is especially enthusiastic when he speaks of his former chief, Stephen T. Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, who resigned just after the first of the new year. Mr. Albright is full of the great work of “the chief” and of anecdotes of his 14 years of Government service in charge of parks. He himself has spent nearly 16 years in the service, learning the work from the ground up, first as legal adviser to Director Mather, then as assistant to the director, and later in the dusl capacity of superintendent of the Yellow- stone, largesi of the national parks, and assist- ant director (field). There isn't a problem, office or field, that he does not understand. After a few minutes’ talk one begins to wisualize the enormous responsibilities resting upon the shoulders of Mr. Albright and his assistants in administering 52 nationul parks and national monuments and providing in them accommodations of various kinds for ovey three wmillion people a year. For that is just wixit the Nationa' Park Service must do. It is Big Business, with a capital B. T 1S interesting to note that when the Na- tional Park Service was actually established, early in 1917, it was Mr. Albright, then a young chap in his middle twenties, who actu- ally organized the new bureau and who inaugu- rated many of its policies. At that time the total funds available for expenditure by the new service, in both Washington and the field, amounted to less than three-quarters of a million dollars, with the War Department ex- pending another quarter of a million in having LA some park road work done by its Army Engi- neers. During the present year the service has the responsibility of expending nearly $10,000,000 of Government funds, of which almost half will be devoted to the construction of first-class highways. It handles nearly a million dollars more of Government money in revenues re- ceived in the various parks, but does not expend any of this sum, which is turned over to the Treasury of the United States for reappropri- ation by Congress. I* has been the policy of the National Park Service, since its creation, to submit its esti- mates of needed appropriations to Congress on Horace M. Albright, the Californian, who was recently appointed director of the National Park Service. a businesslike basis, asking only for such funds as were absolutely necessary for the various projects under consideration and could be fully justified. As a result, when the Bureau of the Budget began to handle the estimates of appro- priations for the entire needs of the National Government, it found this organisation unique in that it was already submitting its financial needs to Congress on a budget basis similar to that adopted by the new Budget Bureau. Both the Bureau of the Budget and Con- gress, recognizing the fact that the Park Service has asked only for necessary funds and has expended them on & sound business basis, have taken a keen interest in the development of the nationsl parks and have granted as liberal appropriations as were consistent with the Gove~ ernment’s strict economical financial program. The variety of the work carried on by the service is amazing. It is specifically charged by Congress in its organic act to “conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unim- paired for the enjoyment of future genera- tions.” While this may sound simple, it involves a multiplicity of detail. In order to preserve the natural beauty of the parks and at the same time permit their widest possible use by an in- creasing number of visitors it is necessary to employ between 400 and 500 all-year workers, and during the peak of the tourist season in the Summer this number is augmented to be- tween 2,000 and 2,500 employes. In the field the positions range from superintendent dow:t through the supervisory, clerical and ranger forces, to Navajo laborers and cooks for road gangs, and include specialists in civil engineer- ing, landscape architecture and educational lines. Upon the ranger force devolves the duty of protecting the natural features of the parks, which includes preventing molestation of the native wild animals, stocking park waters with fish and guarding against forest fires; and at the same time these rangers must serve- the public in every way possible to safeguard all visitors. During the Summer the ranger must be en- dowed with a great deal of tact and ingenuity, in addition to his other qualifications. It is the Winter, however, that taxes his physical and mental endurance to the limit, for then he may be assigned to an outlying ranger station, where he may be alone for several weeks or months, and make longs trips on skis or snowshoes over his district, to protect the game from poachers. On these trips he stops at the snowshoe cabins where food supplies have been cached. ’l‘HE civil engineers supervise road and trail construction and the landscape architects pass upon all construction work, both highway and structural, to insure the harmonious blend-~ ing of all man-made developments with their natural surroundings. The educational forces deliver lectures and conduct nature-minded visitors out over the trails, explaining.the geol- Continued on Page Seventeen.