g personal beauty and
advancing the standard of the race than in any other way.

We should not be content, however, with the beauty that comes only from
the conservation of our other resources, but should have a definite plan
for the conservation of beauty as a valuable resource in itself.

The city of Washington should be made the center of this movement toward
national beauty. There is now an organized effort on the part of those
in charge of the erection of public buildings, to make Washington the
most beautiful capital in the world, and a model for other cities.

The federal government should set aside as national parks all of our
greatest natural wonders, as Yellowstone Park is now held.

The states should follow the same line and set apart in the same way
those objects of lesser interest, either natural or historic, which are
to be found in every state--those that are not of sufficient importance
to merit national recognition, but that will add interest to the state
as a place for tourists to visit.

Few states are visited in this way more than is Massachusetts, and it is
largely because not only the state, but the various communities have
preserved historical places, buildings and objects so carefully, have
erected monuments to commemorate them; and have thrown these various
objects of interest open to the public free of charge. These communities
in turn have gained the original expenditure many times over from the
money spent by the steady stream of visitors.

There has been a great movement toward the beautifying of cities and
villages in the past few years. Besides the good work done by park
boards in cities there has been a great improvement in the matter of
cleaner streets, better sidewalks, the planting of more shade trees, and
a far greater attention to the beautifying of private grounds. The
adorning of front yards and porches with vines and flowers is increasing
enormously every year.

Many causes have been at work to produce this result: the broadening
influence of travel, which brings people in touch with what is being
done in other places to promote public beauty, the work of schools,
newspaper and magazine articles, and more time and money to spend on
luxuries,--even the post-card, which makes a souvenir view of every spot
of local beauty or interest; but probably no other one agency has
produced such good results in public beauty as has the woman's club
which has taken up this line of work.