<--PREV Doc #653  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #655 Document #654; January 9, 1954 To Douglas McKay Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part IV: "Pushing ahead along the broad center"; December 1953 to March 1954 Chapter 8: A world "racing toward catastrophe"   Memorandum for the Secretary of the Interior: Recently I have been getting communications from people who seem to be genuinely concerned with what they believe to be the deterioration in our national parks.1 I must admit to a very considerable ignorance in this field--but I am of the opinion that if we are actually neglecting them merely to save a relatively inconsequential amount of money, then we should take a second look.2 Sometime when you are over this way, won't you drop in and inform me about the matter?3 1 John D. Rockefeller, philanthropist and trustee for the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, had written to the President after reading an article recommending closure of neglected and poorly maintained national parks. He said he hoped that "some way would be found to stem the tide of this national tragedy" (Dec. 10, 1953, WHCF/OF 4-Q-3; Harper's, Oct. 1953, pp. 49-52). 2 Congress had appropriated $33,770,850 to the National Park Service for FY 1954, but would cut its budget to $26,663,489 in FY 1955, a figure two million dollars lower than the Administration had requested (Congressional Quarterly Almanac, vol. IX, 1953, p. 148; ibid., vol. X, 1954, p. 161). Attendance in national parks had more than doubled in the eight years since the end of World War II; at the same time complaints regarding their deterioration had mounted. Eisenhower would initiate a comprehensive ten-year program in 1956 to restore and improve public spaces (New York Times, Apr. 9, 1954; Eisenhower, Mandate for Change, p. 550; and Samuel P. Hays, Beauty, Health, and Permanence: Environmental Politics in the United States, 1955-1985 [Cambridge, 1987]). 3 Secretary of the Interior McKay would meet with Eisenhower on January 11. Both Eisenhower and McKay reassured Rockefeller that the Administration would move quickly to restore and expand the national park system (Eisenhower to Rockefeller, Jan. 8, 1954, WHCF/OF 4-Q-3; McKay to Rockefeller, Jan. 11, 1954, AWF/A). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Douglas McKay, 9 January 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 654. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/654.cfm <--PREV Doc #653  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #655

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