"In the Grand Canyon, Arizona
has a natural wonder which, so far as I know, is in kind absolutely
unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you
to do one thing in connection with it in your own interest and in
the interest of the country - to keep this great wonder of nature
as it now is.
I was delighted to learn of the
wisdom of the Santa Fe railroad people in deciding not to build
their hotel on the brink of the canyon. I hope you will not have
a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel, or anything
else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness
and beauty of the canyon.
Leave it as it
is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it,
and man can only mar it. What
you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children,
and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which
every American if he can travel at all should see.
We have gotten past the stage,
my fellow-citizens, when we are to be pardoned if we treat any part
of our country as something to be skinned for two or three years
for the use of the present generation, whether it is the forest,
the water, the scenery. Whatever it is, handle it so that your children's
children will get the benefit of it."
