Seattle, Portland, Oregon, and Pueblo, Col., go into national parks for their water supplies. Los Angeles goes into a government forest reserve and brings its water from Inyo County, 220 miles, by aqueduct and more than twenty miles by tunnels. Gifford Pinchot, testifying before this Committee, stated: “As we all know, there is no use of water higher than the domestic use. Now the fundamental principle of the whole conservative policy is that of use, to take every part of the land and its resources and put it to that use in which it will best serve the most people.” George Otis Smith, director of the Geological Survey, stated: “I think we will agree that municipal use is the highest value, next irrigation and lastly power—the generation of hydro-electric energy. I believe the highest possible utilization of the Tuolumne, or of any river, is that which provides, as far as possible for a combination of these three values and the harmonizing of the different uses.” V. From the foregoing and from all the evidence and conditions developed under this design, some conclusions are manifest. The Bay section is the largest urban section in California and is doing more business than any other. Its growth is rapid. San Francisco is coming into control of all her municipal utilities. The four great cities on the Bay are one in interest. They will before long probably be one in municipal government. This water power will be of tremendous commercial advantage to these cities. To desire to obtain this water power, is not sordid commercialism or base greed on the part of this section. It is an endeavor to make use of the beneficial forces of nature. It is evidence of a high state of advanced civilization. It is a manifestation of enlightened government. It is fitting and highly proper. It is a cause for praise to this city and the lesser municipalities, not for recrimination and abuse. That the lake in Hetch-Hetchy will not add to the attractiveness of the beautiful valley is undetermined. Opinions are divided. The lake and its accessories will be the means of bringing thousands to a spot hitherto secluded, isolated and, to many, inaccessible. The highest beneficial use of nature to civilization is conservation. Were nature allowed to rest, grand and gloomy, the tall forests and virgin prairie still would lie between Plymouth Rock and the Golden Gate. The march of civilization may still go on and adopt unto itself the high forces of nature in an age of mighty progress and development, and still usually leave “for him who, in the love of nature, holds communion with her visible forms,” the tall cliff, the high waterfall, the grassy flower-strewn valley, and here and there the virgin forest.