Title:
Letter from E[dward] T. Parsons to Allen Chamberlain, 1908 Dec 24.
Creator:
E[dward] T. Parsons
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:
Allen Chamberlain
Date:
1908 Dec 24
2008
Type:
Text
Format:
Image/jpeg2000
Identifier:
muir17_1112-md-1
Source:
Original letter dimensions: 28 x 21.5 cm.
Language:
eng
Coverage:
San Francisco
Rights:
Copyright status unknown
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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:
Copy San Francisco, Dec.24, 1908. Allen Chamberlain Esq.,Suite 4, 130 Pinckney St., Boston, Mass. My Dear Mr. Chamberlain:-
.Yours of the 18th is at hand today. I realize how difficult it is for you, without all the data we have, to successfully
cope at once with the material put out by the special pleaders for the spoilation of the Park. Your letter of the 18th is
our first inkling in any authoritative way of the attitude of the Public Lands committee. How in the world Garfield, in the
first place, and the Public Lands Committee, in the second place, can justify themselves for wantonly giving away without
consideration, a public asset worth millions of dollars, without first ascertaining that a real necessity calls for it, is
beyond my comprehension. I am enclosing you herewith a letter. I am sending out to 300 of my personal friends and acquaintances
throughout the country. I do not feel justified in sitting down and hurriedly writing a letter for the Boston Transcript
tonight, but tonight and tomorrow will try to prepare one, submitting it to Mr.Colby, and send it off to you Saturday, so
that you may get it published in the Transcript possibly on the 1st or 2nd. In it we will try to cover the points made by
Fitzgerald and by your wordy and dust throwing friend, Frank Cramer of Palo Alto, whom none of us happen to know. It is quite
possible, though not at all sure, that he is one of the paid advocates of the damming of the Hetch-Hetchy. Since your letter,
you have doubtless received our further communications, and one from me and from Mr. Colby together should give you the material
for a stiff letter, which you could have shaped up and published in the Transcript over my signature, and this you doubtless
have done. If so, you may modify the letter that I send you Saturday in accordance with it, or let it go just as it is, as
you prefer. By all means, never let up on this proposition. This entire transaction shows the necessity for close co-operation
between our five mountain climbing and nature clubs and the National Civic Association in this very matter of establishing
the inviolability of national parks, and working for the creation of more of them. Every letter sent out and every Individual
stirred up has a positive value towards the creation and growth of a body of public opinion that eventually must carry weight
and compel the acquiescence of our Government. We are now preparing to place the SIERRA CLUB in conjunction with the Mazamas
and Mountaineers of Seattle, on a thoroughly formulated basis for comprehensive propaganda, and will advise you later of our
plans in detail, and what we propose to do. As a parting word- Strike every blow you can and do not let your members be misled
by the sophistry and the begging of the question in the arguments of our opponents. Yours most earnestly, E. T. Parsons