Mr. Babbitt Goes to Washington

   Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt closed his Welcoming Remarks to the Department of the Interior in January with the following lines:

    “Lastly, as we begin anew again in this extraordinary process of American political renewal, I just want to emphasize my sense of excitement about the possibilities and my recognition that I can’t do it alone. But we can do it together, and I want to read to you a paragraph that was written by a British writer named J. B. Priestly who was traveling around looking at America and writing about it and he happened to visit the Grand Canyon and walk down in the bottom on a winter day in 1935. And I think what he wrote could be said equally well about the Great Smoky Mountains, about Yellowstone, Acadia National Park, a monument under our jurisdiction on the Mall, any park of this extraordinary natural and historical heritage that we share. So as we read it, think about one of those places that has touched your imagination, or that you might have occasion to visit in the course of your duties or your next vacation. Here is what he wrote; it’s about Grand Canyon. He said:

   ‘The Colorado River made it, but you feel when you’re there that God gave the Colorado River its instructions. It is all Beethoven’s nine symphonies in stone and magic light.

   Even to remember that it is still there lifts up the heart. If I were an American, I should make my remembrance of it the final test of men, arts and polices.

   I should ask myself, is this good enough to exist in the same country as the Canyon? How would I feel about this man, this kind of art, these political measures, if I were near that Rim? Every member or officer of the Federal government ought to remember and remind himself, with triumphant pride, that he is on the staff of the Grand Canyon.’

   Thank you very much”