CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, PLEASE COPY

The Service's ears have been burning at a great rate this month while, by press and radio, appreciative observers said nice things about its life and works.

The Atlanta Journal, long proud that its daily issue "Covers Dixie Like the Dew," said editorially on March 13: ". . . We in this country are just now fairly awakening to the values of our history. Always, of course, devoted groups have cherished the landmarks and shrines of the past, but now the public --- at least the thinking, feeling part of the public --- turns to such spots with eager hears and eyes. Tourists and vacationists will select a route to visit the house where a poet was born or to stand on a hillside where regiments of men died for a conviction. No small measure of the credit for this aroused and growing interest be longs to the National Park Service. Its development of historic areas is done so discerningly, so coherently and with so fine a sense of educational benefits that the result is often equally gratifying to the veteran student and the young engineer. . ."

Edwin C. Hill, veteran air commentator, flashed the nation a tidy bouquet on the night of March 4 when he pointed a finger of praise at activities now under way at the Statue of Liberty National Monument. He broadcast: "Bartholdi's Big Girl down the bay is having her face lifted. Pedicurists, manicurists and cosmeticians are industriously restoring her beauty; for the remodeling of Bedloe's Island as a national park, and the incidental restoration of the majestic Statue of Liberty, is well under way. . . From the tiny walk in the torch held high in the right hand of Miss Liberty, 300 feet above the waters of New York harbor, men swarm like ants, grading and planning the reclaiming of five acres to be taken from the water. Its reclaimed green lawns and flower gardens will make the little park one of the beauty spots of America and with a perfect setting facing the towers of Manhattan. . ."

PARK PEDAGOGY

An episode at Fort Marion National Monument, Florida, which in February recorded 28,841 visitors from all 48 states and four foreign countries, suggests that educational opportunities, like most other things, are where you find them.

After a class of third grade school children had made a tour of the ancient Spanish citadel in St. Augustine, the teacher gave an examination which required her charges to append pencil sketches of features that had interested them most of all.

The results, transmitted to Service officials, "proved remarkably interesting." The Monument staff now is analyzing this fund of pre-adolescent observations with the aim of preparing a special guide script for visitors of the indicated age group.

It well may be that a little child shall lead the Boa bison of the Department of the Interior to those fathomless springs whence issue the fugitive waters of the crystal stream of knowledge.