Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1901 — Save the Sequoias. [ARTICLE]

Save the Sequoias.

There are now two measures before Congress providing for the preservation of the sequoias in California. One places a restrictive tax upon lumber manufactured from the big trees, and the other is a proposition to incorporate in the sundry civil bill an appropriation for the purchase of the whole Calaveras grove from R. B. Whiteside, an eastern speculator, into whose hands it has come, so as to include it in the Yosemite National Park. In the meantime, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Whiteside has gone to Washington to demand an exorbitant price for the grove, threatening in case it is not paid to set up sawmills and destroy the trees. It Is of opinion that the fairest thing for Congress to do is to proceed arbitrarily against the property, as was done in the case of the private forest claims located within the boundaries of the Yosemite National Park, by declaring the sequoia groves a public reservation. This in any event would be fairer and less likely to establish a dangerous precedent than to. put a restrictive tax upon the lumber. If Whiteside proposes to hold up congress by demanding an exorbitant price upon penalty of destroying the grove; congress would be justified in taking the course pointed out. / Alexander T. Brown of Syracuse, who placed his private launch at the disposal of the Syracuse university crew last year, has promised to present a launch to the university navy.