EDITORIALS 

 1^ 



Save THE For many years the great redwood forests of Humboldt 

 Redwoods and Mendocino counties have been steadily shrinking under 

 the strokes of the lumberman's axe. The time has now 

 come when the lordliest survivors of this giant race are making their 

 last stand in northern California. When they are gone something as 

 incomparable as the Pyramids of Egypt, or the Parthenon of Greece, 

 or the human race itself, will have vanished from the earth forever. 

 For even if young redwoods should be allowed to grow undisturbed 

 for three thousand years, it is doubtful whether climatic conditions will 

 remain such that they can ever again reach the stature and maturity of 

 those which are now being cut down to make grape-stakes. 



The Save-the-Redwoods League, an organization of national propor- 

 tions, has been organized to raise the funds necessary to purchase from 

 private owners a representative forest area of these trees and establish 

 a redwood park. Pending the proposed purchase lumbermen have been 

 induced to stop lumbering operations at points along the highway. But 

 the amount of the funds needed is very large and the money is coming 

 in slowly. The Sierra Club has voted its support to the league, and all 

 our members are urged to join the league and assist in the good work. 



The leading article in this number is a brief but moving plea for the 

 saving of the Sequoias, written by John Muir years ago, when the Cala- 

 veras Grove was in danger. It seems to have been almost providentially 

 preserved among his papers for the supreme occasion which has now 

 arisen, and is herewith published for the first time. It will be noted 

 that he long ago proposed doing the very thing which is now being at- 

 tempted after the lapse of years and after thousands of acres of the 

 finest redwood forests have become an ugly fire-bitten ruin. Although 

 the uniqueness and grandeur of these Humboldt County redwoods make 

 them one of the treasured wonders of the world, they are found in 

 California, and we of this State can not escape responsibility either for 

 their destruction or their preservation. W. F. B. 



Member- Membership in the Sierra Club should not be merely a matter 

 SHIP of paying dues and going on outings. The club still has 

 work to do, even though the time is past when we had to 

 fight to justify the very existence of the national parks. Public opinion 

 is back of them now, and their growing popularity vindicates them 

 among the doubting Thomases who ten years ago had nothing but jeers 

 for the "mushy jesthetes" who recommended their preservation. The 

 task of developing the parks is hardly yet begun, and there is much that 



