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Show 527, scribed to a basically agrarian hope for California; he should also have been in sympathy with the citizens on the east side of the Sierra. He must have recognized that their cause too dramatized the conflict between two views of America's future. But unlike Mary Austin, he chose to remain silent. One need only look at the Sierra Club and Muir's eastern allies to understand why he argued only about Hetch Hetchy. THE TEST OF THE CLUB For many reasons, the Sierra Club was not prepared for the battle over Hetch Hetchy. But the most significant problem was in the allegiances of the members themselves. Did they, for instance, think of themselves as conservationists? Then what would they think about Muir's direct attack on conservationists in The Yosemite? The Club itself had been supporting not just the Parks, but had been heartily in favor of forestry: the Sierra Club Bulletin had included William Dudley's "Forestry Notes" for several years. Like many modern Americans, they might think of themselves as "conservationists" without knowing what the term stood for. It seemed like the sort of right-thinking, progressive attitude at the time. Indeed what might be called the "California Progressive" seems like the perfect portrait of the typical Sierra Club member. Like sixty percent of California's population in 1910, he was urban. He was a professional man, a member of the middle class and proud of it. He might be a member of |