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<br />4 <br /> <br />and others whose speculations benefitted the interests of a few to the disregard <br /> <br />of the interests of the country as a whole. <br /> <br />Roosevelt said, however, that because of this belief that the use of natural <br /> <br />resources should be distributed among as many Americans as possible he was "accused <br /> <br />f. . . 11 <br />o takwg a revolutlonary attltude." <br /> <br />Tile fact that this idea \las taken by <br /> <br />some to be radical shows that the Progressive Era was still a time when concerns <br /> <br />regarding the environment were relegated to the greater needs of milking a profit <br /> <br />off of that environment, whether by speculation or develo~ment. As Worster <br /> <br />makes clear, the Bureau of Reclamation would in time merge with private interest <br /> <br />to finance and construct increasingly large projects for increasingly large <br />agribusiness interests.12 In doing so the. Bureau further distanced itself from <br />. ., . t f h . 13 <br />ltS ongwal self-conceptlon as an agency to promo e "success ul om81nalnng." <br /> <br />It was novel enough for Roosevelt to challenge the land grabbers and to help in <br /> <br />imposing acreage limitations on western reclamation. To push for any modern ideas <br /> <br />such as those of today's liberal and radical environmental interests would have <br /> <br />been politically disastrous. He, called for a more careful use of the country's <br /> <br />resources and showed an enlightened desire to put a forceful stop to their waste. <br /> <br />But he himself stated that "conservation means developtllent as much as it does <br />t . 14 <br />pro ect lOn. " <br /> <br />There 1,ere spokespeople for nature who stood for a stricter preservation <br /> <br />as o~posed to the planned use that conservationists such as Roosevelt and his <br /> <br />advisor, Gifford Pinchot, were advocating. Thoreau, for one, went to Walden to <br /> <br />"live deliberately" and to become more human by recuperating in nature. Jchn <br /> <br />Muir went to Yosemite Valley and developed a similar outlook as to the integrity <br /> <br />of nature that was being eroded by exploitation in the name of development. Muir <br /> <br />helped in the effort to get Congress to create Yosemite National Park in 1890 <br /> <br /> <br />to protect its wilderness. He. also helped to form the Sierra Club in 1892.15 <br /> <br />Yet preservationists such as Thoreau and Muir were clearly the minority. <br />