206 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



The Recession Among the comedies enacted on the floor of 

 Boomerang. the last California Legislature was an attempt 



to pass a resolution asking for the recession of 

 Yosemite National Park to the State of California. The reason 

 alleged was neglect of the valley by the Federal administration. 

 In a circular sent to members of the Legislature by the Secretary 

 of the Sierra Club, he had little difficulty in showing that the 

 annual appropriations by the Federal Government have averaged 

 $40,400 a year for the past five years, considerably more than 

 twice the amount appropriated yearly by the State before recession 

 in 1905. Acting upon Mr. Colby's suggestion that Congress 

 be memorialized to appropriate $1,000,000 in four annual install- 

 ments of $250,000 for the improvement of Yosemite National Park, 

 in anticipation of the World's Fair in 191 5, Mr. Wm. C. Clark 

 introduced a joint resolution to this effect and it was duly passed. 

 We hope that our Senators and Representatives in Congress will 

 spare no effort to secure this appropriation and thus set on foot a 

 comprehensive plan of improvement. As compared with Yellow- 

 stone National Park, Yosemite has never received its proportion- 

 ate share of appropriations. 



The Hetch At the request of the San Francisco authori- 



Hetchy Situation, ties, the final hearing and submission of the 

 report of the Advisory Board of Army 

 Engineers has been postponed again, this time until the first of 

 March, 1912. At the last hearing in May, 1910, the Secretary of 

 the Interior, in reply to a question from City Attorney Long, 

 regarding the scope of the investigation, said "the question the 

 Government wants to know and the question the American people 

 want to know is whether it is a matter of absolute necessity for 

 the people of that city to have this source of water supply; 

 otherwise it belongs to the people for the purpose for which it 

 has been set aside." The city's representatives at that time were 

 directed to make a careful investigation of "all other sources of 

 water supply available" to the city and to report the progress of 

 their investigation to the Board of Army Engineers. The latter 

 board was authorized at the same time to make its own examina- 

 tion in order to arrive at "a full and complete determination of 

 the matters committed to it." This is what the directors of the 

 Club have all along insisted should be done. The report of the 

 Board will be awaited with great interest. 



