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Yellow Journalism

See Journalism; Muck- Raking; Press. "Yellow Peril," I have just your feeling about the Japanese Nation. As for their having a yellow skin, if we go back two thousand years we will find that to the Greek and Roman the most dreaded and yet in a sense the most despised barbarian was the white- skinned, blue-eyed and red- or yellow-haired barbarian of the North—the men from whom you and I in a large part derive our blood. It would not seem possible to the Greek and Roman of that day that the northern barbarian should ever become part of the civilized world—his equal in civilization. (To D. B. Schneder, June 19, 1905.) Tyler Dennett, Roosevelt and the Russo-Japanese War. (Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, N. Y., 1925), p. 159.

"Yellow Peril"

See also Japan.

Yellowstone Park

It is of the utmost importance that the Park shall be kept in its present form as a great forestry preserve and a National pleasure ground, the like of which is not to be found on any other continent than ours; and all public-spirited Americans should join with "Forest and Stream" in the effort to prevent the greed of a little group of speculators, careless of everything save their own selfish interests, from doing the damage they threaten to the whole people of the United States, by wrecking the Yellowstone National Park. So far from having this Park cut down it should be extended, and legislation adopted which would enable the military authorities who now have charge of it to administer it solely in the interests of the whole public, and to punish in the most rigorous way people who trespass upon it. The Yellowstone Park is a park for the people and the representatives of the people should see that it is molested in no way. (To editor of Forest and Stream, December 5, 1982.) Robert Underwood Johnson, Remembered Yesterdays. (Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1923), p. 309.

____________. The Yellowstone Park is something absolutely unique in the world, so far as I know. Nowhere else in any civilized country is there to be found such a tract of veritable wonderland made accessible to all visitors, where at the same time not only the scenery of the wilderness, but the wild creatures of the Park are scrupulously preserved;  the only change being that these same wild creatures have been so carefully protected as to show a literally astounding tameness. The creation and preservation of such a great natural playground in the interest of our people as a whole is a credit to the nation. . . . This Park was created, and is now administered, for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. The government must continue to appropriate for it especially in the direction of completing and perfecting an excellent system of driveways. But already its beauties can be seen with great comfort in a short space of time and at an astoundingly small cost, and with the sense on the part of every visitor that it is in part his property, that it is the property of Uncle Sam and therefore of all of us. The only way that the people as a whole can secure to themselves and their children the enjoyment in perpetuity of what the Yellowstone Park has to give is by assuming the ownership in the name of the nation and by jealously safeguarding and preserving the scenery, the forests, and the wild creatures. (At laying of cornerstone of Gateway to Yellowstone Park, Gardiner, Montana, April 24, 1903.) Presidential Addresses and State Papers I, 324-325.

Yellowstone Park

See also Forest Reserves.

Young Men’s Christian Associations

The Young Men’s Christian Associations and the Young Women’s Christian Associations, which have now spread over all the country, are invaluable because they can reach every one. I am certainly a beneficiary myself, having not infrequently used them as clubs or reading-rooms when I was in some city in which I had but little or no personal acquaintance. In part they develop the good qualities of those who join them ; in part they do what is even more valuable, that is, simply give opportunity for the men or women to develop the qualities themselves. In most cases they provide reading-rooms and gymnasiums, and therefore furnish a means for a man or woman to pass his or her leisure hours in profit or amusement as seems best. The average individual will not spend the hours in which he is not working in doing something that is unpleasant, and absolutely the only way permanently to draw average men or women from occupations and amusements that are unhealthy for soul or body is to furnish an alternative which they will accept. (Century, October 1900.) Mem. Ed. XV, 428; Nat. Ed. XIII, 375.

____________. Your organization recognizes the vital. need of brotherhood, the most vital of all our needs here in this great republic. The existence of a Young Men’s or Young Women’s Christian Association is certain proof that some people at least recognize in practical shape the identity of aspiration and interest, both in things material and in things higher, which with us must be widespread through the masses of our people if our national life is to attain full development. (Before Young Men’s Christian Association, New York City, December 30, 1900.) Mem. Ed. XV, 527-528; Nat. Ed. XIII, 492.

Youth