The Roots of the Conservation Movement, 1890–1919 79
Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-
tanks the people’s cathedrals and churches, for
no holier temple has ever been consecrated by
the heart of man.Source: A. John Muir to Theodore Roosevelt, in William
Frederic Bade, ed., The Life and Letters of John Muir, Vol.
2 (Cambridge, MA, 1924), quoted in Robert McHenry
and Charles Van Doren, eds., A Documentary History
of Conservation in the United States (New York: Praeger,
1972), p. 307. B. James D. Phelan, “Dam Hetch-Hetchy,”
letter to Outlook, February 13, 1909, in McHenry and Van
Doren, Documentary History, pp. 309-10. C. John Muir,
The Yosemite (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,
1986; reprint of 1912 Century ed.), pp. 260-62.unpollutable.” On the contrary, excepting that of
the Merced below Yosemite, it is less pure than
that of most of the other Sierra streams, because
of the sewerage of camp grounds draining into
it, especially of the Big Tuolumne Meadows
camp ground, occupied by hundreds of tour-
ists and mountaineers, with their animals, for
months every summer, soon to be followed by
thousands from all the world.
These temple destroyers, devotees of ravag-
ing commercialism, seem to have a perfect con-
tempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their
eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to
the Almighty dollar.
Document 69: Richard Ballinger on the Development of the
West (1909)President William Howard Taft’s secretary of the Interior, Richard Ballinger, was a fierce opponent of the
proposals made by Powell, Pinchot, and other conservationists for government oversight of the development
of publicly owned lands with forest, water, and mineral resources, and newspapers of the period referred to
the ongoing debate about how to develop the public domain as “the Ballinger-Pinchot contest.” In Ballinger’s
view, the best way to develop the arid lands was to give a helping hand to the big trusts that controlled the
hydroelectric power industry.
Ballinger’s advocacy for corporate land and resource development was echoed a little over seventy years
later when James Watt became secretary of the Interior under Ronald Reagan and again in the twenty-first
century when Donald Trump became president.A. From a 1909 Interview with John L. Mathews
Mathews: What is your object in giving in to
the railroads and letting them destroy this
water power [that could be developed by the
government along the Deschutes River in Ore-
gon]?
Ballinger:... You chaps who are in favor of this
conservation program are all wrong. You are
hindering the development of the West. These
railroads are necessary to the country. And more
than that, this whole big [public] domain is a
blanket—it is oppressing the people. The thing
to do with it—In my opinion, the proper course
to take with regard to this domain is to divide it
up among the big corporations and the people
who know how to make money out of it and let
the people at large get the benefit of the circula-
tion of the money.B. Address to the National Irrigation
Congress, August 12, 1909
While the Government has invested over fifty
million dollars in irrigation works, many times
that amount has been invested since the passage
of the Reclamation Act by private enterprise and
it is safe to say that a large portion of these pri-
vate investments have resulted from Governmen-
tal example and encouragement; and let me say
here that it has not been and is not the policy
of the National Government in the administra-
tion of this act to hinder or interfere with the