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Show 478 who promises us that this ideal life is still a tenable dream. Muir called this kind of attitude insanity. Men had become the tools of their lust for gain: "The axe and saw are insanely busy, chips are flying thick as snowf lakes. . . . " Muir was right. In the summer of 1897, a blizzard of destruction continued in the West, made possible by the technological progress of the American Dream. He also knew that the petty greed of the little man made him turn his head and ignore the massive destruction effected by the wealthy who stole by wholesale. What was missing in this argument was the same deep analysis of railroad wrongs. Though Muir attacked the waste railroads created, he failed to mention their wrongful gain, or abuses of grants. This suggests that he was already making certain concessions. The writing was already on the trees: he would have to concede the Reserves to users, and turn to the Parks, with railroads as allies. By 1905 he and the Sierra Club were willing to show the economic benefits of tourism to the Western states. Legislatures, State and National, simply didn't listen to arguments which weren't measured in economic terms. The preservation of wilderness required another strategy, the encouragement of tourism. Muir would not be able to examine closely the corrupt practices of that industry. He had made his final and most tragic philosophical compromise. |