Mount Katahdin State Park: An Address Given

Opening: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: When your Committee invited me to appear before you and speak upon the proposed Mount Katahdin State Park, I accepted the invitation with pleasure, for I well knew there was no organization in our State to whom this project would appeal with more force than to the Maine Sportsmen\u27s Fish and Game Association. You know the out-of-doors; you study the hillsides, the valleys, and the wild life of the woods, and you, of all our citizens, appreciate that spiritual, as well as physical, benefits are to be derived from a close contact with nature. Mount Katahdin is located in the very heart of the great timberlands of Maine, the - wild lands as they usually are called, and in view of this it is fitting that in my remark~ I should outline to you the history of these wild lands, in which we are now beginning to take an interest. The history of these - lands is fascinating. It is a story of violent speculation in. which fortunes were lost and men\u27s reputations ruined, and in which fortunes were won and great timber-owning families were established, and made wealthy for generations to come. It is a story of intrigue and corruption, where powerful and selfish men often took that to which they had no right, from those too weak to defend themselves and their property. It is a story in which the rights of the people in a princely inheritance were given away or bartered for a song, for the folly of which future generations forever will pay. An address given by Hon. Percival P. Baxter of Portland, President of the Senate, at the Annual Meeting of the Maine Sportsmen\u27s Fish and Game Association Hall of Representatives, State Capitol Augusta, Maine, January 27, 1921https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/books_pubs/1078/thumbnail.jp