Creator
R[obert] U[nderwood] Johnson
Recipient
John Muir
Transcription
J[letterhead]July 6, 1912Dear Muir:Owen is out today after six weeks of typhoid at my house, which has kept Mrs. Johnson and me in town.I am very anxious to get off to the country near by & (when Buel comes back July 21) to some real vacation. Before I go I ought to know what our next year's programme will be. Can't you let me know definitely about the two articles on the Amazon & the Victoria Falls. I'm trying here to get05219
some Amazon pictures. Have you any fine ones or Victoria Falls? Or can you tell me where I can get some?The Argonaut reprinted my editorial on "The People's National Park" & backed it up. I sent it to the President & to members of the Public Lands Committees of both Houses of Congress.I miss you.Faithfully yoursR. U. JohnsonI am for Wilson for President. you see the Academy furnishing two out of three of the candidates.
(copy)July 5, 1912To the Editor of The Call,San Francisco, Cal.Dear Sir:I have only just seen your editorial of June 3, in which you accuse me of trickiness in giving the impression that San Francisco is making an assault upon the Yosemite Valley and to sustain the charge quote this paragraph from The Century's editorial on “The People's National Parks" in our June number. You quote:"Nothing else that California can show as an exhibit (in the Panama-Pacific international exposition) will be comparable to the glories of the Yosemite park. Instead of lending support to a mad and wanton scheme of vandalism toward the Hetch Hetchy, the city should be doing what it can to obtain from congress appropriations to make it accessible to the multitude of travelers who three years hence are sureto visit the most wonderful state in the union. To do otherwise were as though a queen should trample her own crown in the mire."In order to test the matter I respectfully make this offer:I will submit to the presidents of the University of California and of the Leland Stanford, Jr. University and to yourself, as a committee of three whether the part of my05219
The Call---2editorial quoted by you, or the whole of it, justifies you in this accusation. If a majority of the committee decides in your favor I am to send $50. to any charity in San Francisco named by you; if against you you are to send me $50. in a draft on Rome to the order of H. Nelson Gay, as a contribution to the Library of the Keats-Shelley Memorial in Rome, in which I am much interested, and which needs money for books.In the latter case you are to print an apology to me on the editorial page. In the former, I am to print in The Century that, so far as I know, the city of San Francisco has never had any designs upon the Yosemite Valley, but only on the Hetch-Hetchy and its watershed, comprising about half of the Yosemite National Park. As I have never said anything to the contrary, this will not be difficult for me. It would be like acquitting the man who fired the Ephesian Dome of the charge of having blown up the Pantheon.Very truly, yours,R. U. Johnson05219
Location
New York
Date Original
1912 Jul 6
Source
Original letter dimensions: 20 x 12.5 cm.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Robert Underwood, "Letter from R[obert] U[nderwood] Johnson to John Muir, 1912 Jul 6." (1912). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 6301.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/6301
Resource Identifier
muir20_1087-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 20, Image 1087
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
Copyright Status
Copyright status unknown
Copyright Statement
Some letters written to John Muir may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Transmission or reproduction 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.
Owning Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Pages
4 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
