L. W. Currey, Inc.

MANSON, MARSDEN. A statement of San Francisco's side of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir matter. December 30, 1909 [cover title]. San Francisco: [December 1909 or January 1910]. 23 cm, pp. [1-3] 4-8, self-wrappers, stapled. First edition. The "Allied Printing" slug is printed upside down on front cover. Signed in type at base of text on page 8: "Marsden Manson, Mem. Sierra Club." This pamphlet favoring the Hetch Hetchy project, written by San Francisco city engineer Marsden Manson, is addressed members of the Sierra Club who were to vote on the Hetch Hetchy question in a special election January 29, 1910 to settle the dispute over the club's stand. Manson argued that San Francisco had a legal right to use Hetch Hetchy Valley for a reservoir site under the provisions of the law passed February 15, 1901. Among his arguments in favor of club support was the claim that the reservoir would not destroy the scenic beauty of the Valley: "The cliffs rise to a height of more than 2500 feet above the valley floor, and as the reservoir will not in any case be more than 275 to 300 feet deep the apparent decrease in the height of the walls will not be perceptible to the eye of the ordinary observer." Manson also declared that Lake Eleanor would suffice for San Francisco's needs for thirty or forty years and Hetch Hetchy Valley would "... be preserved to the present generation and perhaps to the one that follows it." A fine copy. (#164853).