Imperial press and farmer., 1902-08-23
Yosemite for the People.

Yosemite valley we quote lIOm that popular magazine-"Out West"
 The wave of enthusiasm for the building of California which is sweep ing over the States has produced a crop of valuable ideas. It is signifi- cant that so many of them take the form of suggestions looking to public enterprise. More and more it is seen that we have come to the end of our day of little things and stand upon the threshold of day of large under takings. This being so, we are forced to realize that our choice lies be- tween the encouragement of vast pri- vate investments and the adoption of a plan of development under public auspices. The appreciation of the fact marks a transition in popular sentiment. We are seriously consider ing the assertion of public authority and the use of public capital and credit in doing many things essential to the full development of the State-such things, for instance, as the storage of the floods, the replanting of the for ests, and the drainage of the Sacra- mento Basin. After all it Is very short step from the policy of river and harbor improvements to the adop- tion of similar methods in doing other things of equal, if not of greater inn pOrtance.
 l.. M. Holt of Los Angeles, who has furnished a perennial stream of good ideas for the last thirty years, now comes forward with most interest ing suggestion touching the future of itO Wall cox hot h ics great State property is now a liabil- ity, entailing an annual loss of thou sands of dollars, whereas it ought to be productive asset. It requires better hotel accommodations, an cleo tric railroad to take the place of slow and costly stage facilities, and several such mountain roads as that which ascends Mount Lowe in Southern California, so that the tiresome mule ride can be obviated. MT. Holt thinks the State itself should deal with these matters and he points out the obvious fact that it would be profitable en- terpriSe in direct returns, immensely more so indirectly, because of the people it would attract to the State, and that in addition to this it would open the park to a great number of Californians who cannot afford to visit it., or at least to remain longer than a brief holiday, under present conditions.
 Mr. Holt's suggestion is worthy of general discussion. Two probable ob jections to it's adoption will readily occur to the reader. It will be said that this wonderland will lose some thing of it's DictureSOueneSS when the electric car succeeds the stage-coach and the mountain tramway the mule ride. Then it will be thought, if not openly said, that it is a pity to make the place too common by rendering it too accessible. The other argument against the proposal will be the old, old objection to all forms of public enterprise-that it involves public debt
 It is possible to SympathiZe with sentimental regret at the passing of the picturesque, even when nothing is lost except the discomforts of travel. Of course, the natural objects in the Yosemite will be no less wonderful and beautiful because the traveller has been transported by electricity in stead of by horse or mule power, nor because he has made the trip in a quarter of the time formerly re- quired, and at one quarter of the pres ent expense. True, the adventure loses some of it's novelty, but so has modern transportation throughout the world when compared with the days of the stage-coach, of the canal boat, and of the sailing vessel Still no