Title:
Letter from E. P. Liplus to [John Muir ?], 1910 Jul 9.
Creator:
E. P. Liplus
Publisher:
University of the Pacific Library Holt-Atherton Special Collections. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies
of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Contributor:
[John Muir ?]
Date:
1910 Jul 9
2008
Type:
Text
Format:
Image/jpeg2000
Identifier:
muir19_0624-md-1
Source:
Original letter dimensions: 28 x 21.5 cm.
Language:
eng
Coverage:
Chicago
Rights:
Copyright status unknown
Some letters written to John Muir may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Transmission or reproduction
of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners.
Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Transcription:
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway System. Railway Exchange, 9 Jackson Boulevard, Chicago. PRESIDENT'S OFFICE.
July 9, 1910. We observe that parties are before the House Committee on Public Lands for permission to build a scenic railway
to be operated by trolley on the rim of the Grand Canyon of Arizona. We have been asked on several occasions to co-operate
in this or similar schemes and have declined for the following reasons: 1st: Because the Grand Canyon is the most stupendous
piece of natural scenery in the world and not the least of its attractions is its vastness and solitude; to deface it with
a line of trolley poles, or trains of yellow cars along its borders, would be to outrage the sensibilities of all lovers of
nature, and to offer an affront to those who seek the place for its present charms; 2d: Because there is no possibility,
in our opinion, that a trolley line as proposed would be self-sustaining, and after a few months' precarious existence it
would be abandoned and its wreckage would deface the landscape. True, that would not be our affair, but it does not seem advisable
to authorize a scheme so surely predestined to failure. Our reason for belief that such a scheme could not pay is that during
no one year has the Canyon been visited by as many as 24,000 people. If we suppose this doubled (which is a violent assumption),
and if we suppose that each of the 48,000 people spends two dollars in riding on the proposed road (another violent assumption)
the resultant income would not pay operating expenses and taxes on a road twenty miles long, to say nothing of interest on
its cost. The Atchison, Topeka Santa Fe Company has nothing to lose by the building of the proposed scenic railway-on the
contrary it would presumably benefit to the extent of the freight charges on material and perhaps in other ways; and its protest
is based wholly on public grounds. We have consistently endeavored that in our necessary building we might not offend the
sense of the lover of nature in its primitive moods and we are told that we have been successful. Those who have been at the
Canyon may or may not like the idea of a trolley line on the rim. If this meets the eye of any who agree with our views of
the matter it might be well to express that agreement by letter to the members of the House Committee on Public Lands, whose
names are as follows, and who will be called on to grant or refuse a permit. Yours truly, illegible President. FRANK
W. MONDELL of Wyoming. HERBERT PARSONS of New York. THOMAS R. HAMER of Idaho. ADAM M. BYRD, of Mississippi. GEO. W. RAUCH
of Indiana. ANDREW J. VOLSTEAD of Minnesota. CHARLES N. PRAY of Montana. D. T. MORGAN of Oklahoma. J. T. ROBINSON of Arkansas.
DUDLEY M. HUGHES of Georgia. SYLVESTER C. SMITH of California. JOHN M. REYNOLDS of Pennsylvania. CHARLES E. PICKETT of
Iowa. SCOTT FERRIS of Oklahoma. EDWARD T. TAYLOR of Colorado. ASLE J. GRONNA of North Dakota. CHARLES A. CROW of Missouri.
W. W. McCREDIE of Washington. W. B. CRAIG of Alabama. WM. H. ANDREWS of New Mexico. 08496