EDITORIALS 



9 



A Quarter of The year 1917 marks a quarter of a century in the life of 

 A Century of the Sierra Club. It is natural that we should pause at 

 Service this time and look back over these twenty-five years of 



existence to determine whether or not the organizers of 

 the club were justified in creating it. The club's record during these 

 years is ample justification for their faith. It has filled a need and ac- 

 complished a purpose which places the reason for its existence beyond 

 all possible question. Growing appreciation of the incomparable natural 

 scenery on this coast and the necessity for its preservation and safe- 

 guarding created a demand for some public-spirited body which would 

 unselfishly and fearlessly stand in the breach until such time as the pub- 

 lic conscience should be awakened to its real value. 



The club's stand in resisting encroachments on the national parks ; in 

 favoring the creation of the early forest reservations ; in reducing to 

 reasonable numbers the cattle and sheep which at one time overran the 

 entire Sierra, and in excluding them entirely from certain scenic areas 

 of exceptional interest; in the recession of the Yosemite Valley to the 

 Federal Government; in advocating the great principle that national 

 parks should be inviolate, which was involved in the attempt to save the 

 Hetch-Hetchy Valley; in favoring the creation of additional national 

 parks, and its stand on other similar questions, have been in the face of 

 powerful opposition and bitter criticism, and while it has not met with 

 success in every instance, it has compelled the respect of its opponents, 

 who have eventually been forced to admit that the fight was made in 

 each instance in absolute good faith and with the honest conviction that 

 the object sought to be accomplished was for the greatest public good. 



As an advocate of the gospel of "out-of-doors" and in fostering the 

 spirit of the true mountaineer, the club has also added much to its 

 prestige. 



The club's prime object is service; its activities in taking its members 

 into the mountains each summer, and in the publication of information, 

 have all been for the purpose of awakening an intelligent interest in the 

 greater work it is striving to accomplish. 



The future gives promise of equally great opportunity for continued 

 service. While we have been deprived of the temporal leadership of that 

 noble mountain-lover who presided over the destinies of the club for the 

 greater part of its twenty-five years of existence — our beloved John 

 Muir — we still have the inspiration of his message, and his words live 

 with us as if spoken anew each day. As we journey to the mountains 

 year after year, his spirit is there to give us renewed courage to meet 

 the problems and carry on the great work that has fallen to our lot. We 

 may well accept as our standard the supreme faith he expressed in these 



