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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



money valuation of the uses of our great natural scenery, attract- 

 ing, as it does, a vast number of summer sojourners and the 

 traveling public in general, would make an astonishing showing. 



It could easily be proved that the fear of ofifending the "hard- 

 headed" and "practical" man by such an appeal is without founda- 

 tion. The first thing that a man does after he obtains a compe- 

 tence is to invest his money in some form of beauty, and it is in 

 the interest of good citizenship that he should have a plot of 

 ground to be proud of. He settles in some town, suburb, or other 

 region mainly because it is beautiful, and he is all the happier 

 if his home can command an attractive natural view. As he 

 grows richer, this desire for beautiful things, and particularly 

 for a beautiful country-place, becomes more dominant, and it is to 

 such a feeling that we owe the development of our sea-coast and 

 hilltops into regions of resort for health and recreation. The 

 American still apostrophizes his country with the lines : 



I love thy rocks and rills, 



Thy woods and templed hills, 



and he is not willing that this sentiment shall be changed to 

 read: 



I love thy stocks and mills, 

 Thy goods and crumpled bills. 



It must always be held as a blot upon the lustrous record of 

 the Roosevelt Administration in conservation matters that, in 

 deference to the false sense of what is practical, and moreover, 

 by a strained construction of law, it gave away a large part of 

 the people's greatest national park for a city's reservoir, con- 

 fessedly without the slightest inquiry as to the necessity of doing 

 so. The contention that in fact this necessity does not exist was 

 confirmed when the leader of the scheme acknowledged before 

 the Senate Committee on the PubHc Lands that San Francisco, 

 without invading the Park, could get an abundant water-supply 

 from a number,- of other regions by the simple, though some- 

 times inconvenient, process of paying for it ! 



The time has come when, if much of what has been gained by 

 the reservation of our great natural monuments is not to be lost, 

 the public must make known its wishes to Congress. The scheme 

 for the dismemberment of the Yosemite National Park, which a 

 year ago was temporarily checked, is to be pushed during the 

 present session. In this contest the recent visit of President 

 Taft to the Yosemite and that of the Secretary of the Interior to 

 the Hetch Hetchy will strengthen the defenders of the latter 

 valley, for no one can view the phenomenal beauty of these Sierra 

 gorges without feeling a solemn responsibility for its preserva- 

 tion. Even the San Francisco promoters of the destructive scheme 



