Transcription:
Nov 15, 1909? My dear Mr Ballinger: 12-13-3-A Many thanks for your kind letter of Nov. 3d. Making the acquaintance of
the President yourself under happiest auspices is the best gift of this eventful year. I guess from scraps here there in
the press, especially in Colliers that P. seems bent on stirring up barren strife to blot becloud the good work he has hitherto
done. Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. The Sierra Club is getting out another pamphlet for the Hetch Hetchy
fight we expect in the coming Congress. The scheme for the invasion of Yosemite Park is all bad, founded on cunningly devised
fables honeycombed throughout with personal ambitions dry rot politics. San Francisco citizens want pure water, are looking
as they should to the snowy Sierra: but few know or care about