The Hetch-Hetchy Valley. 2iy 



the park,— for it can, — but seemingly only because of 

 the comparative cheapness of the dam required. 



Garden- -and park-making goes on everywhere with 

 civiHzation, for everybody needs beauty as well as bread, 

 places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal 

 and cheer and give strength to body and soul. This 

 natural beauty-hunger is displayed in poor folks' window- 

 gardens made up of a few geranium slips in broken cups, 

 as well as in the costly lily gardens of the rich, the 

 thousands of spacious city parks and botanical gardens, 

 and in our magnificent National Parks, — the Yellow- 

 stone, Yosemite, Sequoia, etc., — Nature's own wonder- 

 lands, the admiration and joy of the world. Never- 

 theless, like everything else worth while, however 

 sacred and precious and well-guarded, they have al- 

 ways been subject to attack, mostly by despoiling gain- 

 seekers, — mischief-makers of every degree from Satan 

 to superv^isors, lumbermen, cattlemen, farmers, etc., 

 eagerly trying to make everything dollarable, often 

 thinly disguised in smiling philanthropy, calling pocket- 

 filling plunder "Utilization of beneficent natural re- 

 sources, that man and beast may be fed and the dear 

 Nation grow great." Thus long ago a lot of enter- 

 prising merchants made part of the Jerusalem temple 

 into a place of business instead of a place of prayer, 

 changing money, buying and selling cattle and sheep 

 and doves. And earlier still the Lord's garden in Eden, 

 and the first forest reservation, including only one tree, 

 was spoiled. And so to some extent have all our reserva- 

 tions and parks. Ever since the establishment of the 

 Yosemite National Park by act of Congress, October 8, 

 1890, constant strife has been going on around its bor- 

 ders, and I suppose will go on as part of the universal 

 battle between right and wrong, however its boundaries 

 may be shorn or wild beauty destroyed. The first 

 application to the Government by the San Francisco 

 supervisors for the use of Lake Eleanor and the Hetch- 

 Hetchy Valley was made in 1903, and denied December 



