Transcription:
NATIONAL PARKS CALIFORNIA BRANCH 302 MILLS BUILDING SAN FRANCISCO Directors of California Branch MR. JOHN MUIR, President,
Martinez DR. WM. F. BADE, Vice-President, Berkeley MR. W. S. GOULD, Oakland MRS. JAS. B. HUME, Berkeley MR. CHAS. KEELER,
Berkeley PROF. J. N. LE CONTE, Berkeley MRS. KATHARINE MILLER, BERKELEY PROF. W. C. MORGAN, Berkeley MR. E. T. PARSONS.
San Francisco REV. WM. T. PATCHEL, San Jose MR. WILLOUGHBY RODMAN, Los Angeles MR. GEO. EDWARDS, Secretary, 302 Mills Building,
S. F. MRS. R. V. COLBY, Treasurer, 302 Mills Building, S. F. MR. ALLEN CHAMBERLAIN, Boston MR. ASAHEL CURTS, Seattle
MR. HENRY E.GREGORY, New-York MR. ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON, New-York MISS HARRIET MONROE, Chicago MR. J. HORACE MCFARLAND,
Harrisburg, Pa. MR. JOHN W. NOBLE, St. Louis MR. ALDEN SAMPSON. New York MR. C. H. SHOLES, Portland MR. Edmund A. WHITMAN,
Boston San Francisco, April 20, 1909. Honorable Richard A. Ballinger, Secretary of the Interior, Washington, D.C.
Sir:- The Society for the Preservation of National Parks, representing a national sentiment that has already-powerfully
expressed itself in no unmistakable terms through the medium of the public press, and composed of thousands of adherents living
in every State and Territory of the Union, respectfully petitions you to reopen and review the decision of your Department
of May 11, 1908, whereby the City and County of, San Francisco was granted a permit to flood the Hetch Hetchy Valley in the
Yosemite National Park, and we base our petition upon the following grounds:- 1. In making said grant said Department' exceeded
its jurisdiction, and said grant is null and void, because it violates the provisions of the Act of Oct. 1, 1890 (26 Stat.
L. 650), which directs the Secretary of the Interior to make regulations for the retention in their natural conditions of
all ... natural curiosities or wonders within said reservation . 2. In making said grant said Department did not take into
consideration the fundamental question involved, to-wit: The necessity for making said grant; but in the terms of the very
decision itself, the then Hon. Secretary stated: In considering the reinstated application of the City of San Francisco, I
do not need to pass upon the claim that it is the only practicable and reasonable source of water supply for the City. 3.
The exparte statements of the Hetch Hetchy advocates decided the question with the former Secretary, who said in