Transcription:
September 22, 1909 R.W. GILDER,EDITOR. R.U.JOHNSON, ASSOCIATE DEITOR. C.C.BUEL. ASSISTANT EDITOR. My dear Muir:
I hare your interesting letter of the 14th of September. Hurrah for the Taft-Muir excursion to the Yosemite It was at the
President's instance that I asked Ballinger to lunch with me at the Century Club to talk matters over. If he is sincere then
we have found a sympathetic Secretary. When I showed him the photographs of the Hetch-Hetchy he was astonished at the beauty
of the place and said that on the scenic argument he was with me. He told me that our opponents are quarreling among themselves;
that one of the Interior Department men a friend of Senator Flint told the Secretary that there was a great deal of politics
in this scheme. I sounded him on the revocation of the grant and he said he did not think that could be done but that possibly
he might suspend its operation until Congresshad done something definite on the general subject. He gave me to understand
that he would not go an an inch beyond the terns of the Garfield grant. He said he had refused to allow the supervisors to
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