Transcription:
J EDITORIAL-DEPARTMENT THE CENTURY-MAGAZINE UNION SQUARE-NEW-YORK February 11,1899. R. W.GILDER,EDITOR. R.U.JOHNSON,
ASSOCIATE EDITOR. C.C.BUEL ASSISTANT EDITOR. Mr.John Muir, Martinez,Cal, My dear Muir, I was very glad indeed to get
your letter of the 23d of January with its information that the forest reservations of California are rapidly going to destruction.If
this is the case I want to know it.The one man that I know who could do more than any one else to stop this is John Muir of
Martinez, California.I wish I had thought when he was in the East to ask him to go to see President McKinley on the subject,
for I am sure that a word to him would be all that was necessary to accomplish this;or I might have spoken to his friend,
Professor Sargent, who is also, I understand, interested in the same subject, and I am sure he would have taken Mr. Muir to
see the President on this important matter;but sometimes one can accomplish more at a distance of six thousand miles than
at a distance of six feet I think it might not be presuming on the part of an American citizen if you would address a note
to the President on this subject or let us say, to the new Secretary of the Interior, marking it per-