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8
Preface

As we near the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century, environmental policy faces significant
challenges both at home and around the world. New demands for dealing with the risks of climate change and
threats to biological diversity, and for meeting the rising aspirations of the planet’s seven and a half billion
people, will force governments everywhere to rethink policy strategies. They need to find effective ways to
reconcile environmental and economic goals and values through new approaches to sustainable development.
In the United States, the early part of the decade saw a stagnant economy and persistently high
unemployment, which encouraged policymakers and the business community to blame environmental policies
and regulations for hindering economic growth and job creation, even where the evidence of such an impact
was weak or nonexistent. The economy improved greatly by 2017, although, as economic inequality widened,
the benefits of economic expansion failed to reach many who remained no better off than they were two
decades earlier. Partly as a result, the dialogue over environmental policy has become even more politically
contentious, and critics often blamed those policies for weakening economic growth and job creation.

Many of these criticisms continue to divide members of the two major parties deeply, as Republicans,
particularly in the House of Representatives, have called for repealing, reducing, and reining in environmental
policies and regulations in the face of strong Democratic defense of the same policies and actions. The result
has been intense and relentless partisan debate on Capitol Hill and at the state and local levels where many of
the same conflicts have been evident. Environmentalists have blamed Democrats as well for what they see as
their often timid defense of environmental policy or for the ways in which they seek to balance what they see
as competing economic and environmental goals even as new research demonstrates convincingly that this
dichotomy represents a false choice. Political debate over the next few years may continue to be framed in
these terms even as leading businesses, the scientific community, and increasing numbers of public officials
recognize that the real challenge today is to find ways to meet economic and other human needs while also
protecting the environment on which we depend.

The election of President Donald Trump in November 2016 brought a dramatic change in policy positions
and priorities after eight years of the Barack Obama administration. Particularly in his second four-year term,
Obama sought to strengthen protection of public health and the environment, foster the development of clean
energy resources, and establish a viable and broadly supported path toward global action on climate change
through the Paris Agreement of 2015. In contrast, early decisions in the Trump administration aimed to
reverse many of Obama’s major policy initiatives, especially on energy use and climate change. The differences
between the two presidencies on societal values and policy priorities, key appointments to administrative
agencies, budgetary support for established programs, and the use of science in decision making could hardly
have been greater. What is less clear is whether the positions of the Trump presidency will win favor in
Congress beyond initial actions to roll back environmental regulations, and whether the American public and
the business community will support such a major reversal in public policy.

When the first environmental decade was launched in the early 1970s, protecting our air, water, and other

9
natural resources seemed a relatively simple proposition. The polluters and exploiters of nature would be
brought to heel by tough laws requiring them to clean up or get out of business within five or ten years. But
preserving the life support systems of the planet now appears a far more daunting task than anyone imagined
back then. Not only are problems such as global climate change more complex than recognized by early efforts
to control air and water pollution, but now more than ever, the success of U.S. policies is tied to the actions of
other nations. This book seeks to explain the most important developments in environmental policy and
politics since the 1960s and to analyze the central issues that face us today. Like the previous editions, it
focuses on the underlying trends, institutional strengths and shortcomings, and policy dilemmas that all policy
actors face in attempting to resolve environmental controversies. Chapters have been thoroughly revised and
updated, and one of them is new to this edition. We have also attempted to compare the positions and actions
of the Trump administration to those of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations and to put
these differing approaches to environmental policy in the context of ongoing debates over the cost and
effectiveness of past policies, as well as the search for ways to reconcile and integrate economic,
environmental, and social goals through sustainable development. As such, the book has broad relevance for
the environmental community and for all concerned with the difficulties and complexities of finding solutions
to environmental problems at the end of this second decade of the twenty-first century.

Part I provides a retrospective view of policy development as well as a framework for analyzing policy change
in the United States. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction to the book by outlining the basic issues in U.S.
environmental policy since the late 1960s, the development of institutional capabilities for addressing them,
and the successes and failures in implementing policies and achieving results. In Chapter 2, Barry G. Rabe
considers the evolving role of the states in environmental policy at a time when the recent devolution of
responsibilities may face scrutiny from new federal leaders. He focuses on innovative policy approaches used
by the states and the promise of—as well as the constraints on—state action on the environment. Part I ends
with a chapter by Luis E. Hestres and Matthew C. Nisbet that analyzes changes in environmental advocacy
strategies in recent years and addresses a fundamental question about the capacity of environmentalists to
make their case to the American public and policymakers at a time when conventional movement strategies
have not been very successful and when opposition from industry and political conservatives is on the rise.

Part II analyzes the role of federal institutions in environmental policymaking. Chapter 4, by Norman J. Vig,
discusses the role of recent presidents as environmental actors, evaluating their leadership on the basis of
several common criteria. In Chapter 5, Michael E. Kraft examines the role of Congress in environmental
policy, giving special attention to partisan conflicts over the environment and policy gridlock. The chapter
focuses on recent debates and actions on national energy policy and climate change, over which Congress has
struggled for much of the past decade. Chapter 6 presents Rosemary O’Leary’s use of several in-depth case
studies of judicial action to explore how the courts shape environmental policy. In Chapter 7, Richard N. L.
Andrews examines the EPA and the way it uses the policy tools granted to it by Congress, especially its
regulatory authority, to address environmental challenges. Because regulations inherently place restrictions
and burdens on businesses and state and local governments, Andrews uses several case studies to illuminate
how the agency implements environmental policy while addressing the concerns of these constituencies and
others, such as the president, members of Congress, the news media, and the courts, about varied

10
environmental risks and the costs and benefits of acting on them.

Some of the broader dilemmas in environmental policy formulation and implementation are examined in Part
III. Chapter 8, by Edward P. Weber, David Bernell, Hilary S. Boudet, and Patricia Fernandez-Guajardo,
examines disputes over national energy policy, particularly controversies surrounding hydraulic fracturing or
fracking, coal mining and carbon emissions, and the interdependence of water and energy resources. In
Chapter 9, Christopher Bosso and Nicole E. Tichenor examine the fascinating relationships between food
and the environment, specifically the environmental impacts of the dominant food system on which the
United States and other developed nations rely, the federal environmental laws that affect the production and
sale of food, and the growing criticism about and ideas for change in the food system that are intended to
reduce its ecological footprint while also ensuring that the nation and planet can continue to feed a growing
number of people.

In Chapter 10, Sheila M. Olmstead introduces economic perspectives on environmental policy, including the
use of benefit-cost analysis, and she assesses the potential of market forces as an alternative or supplement to
conventional regulation. She sees great potential in the use of market-based environmental and resource
policies. Chapter 11 moves the spotlight to evolving business practices. Daniel Press and Daniel A.
Mazmanian examine the “greening of industry” or sustainable production, particularly the increasing use of
market-based initiatives such as voluntary pollution prevention, information disclosure, and environmental
management systems. They find that a creative combination of voluntary action and government regulation
offers the best promise of success. Finally, in Chapter 12, Kent E. Portney examines the intriguing efforts by
communities throughout the nation to integrate environmental sustainability into policy decisions in areas as
diverse as energy use, housing, transportation, land use, and urban social life—considerations made even more
important today in an era of higher energy costs.

Part IV shifts attention to selected global issues and controversies. In Chapter 13, Henrik Selin and Stacy D.
VanDeveer survey the key scientific evidence and major disputes over climate change, as well as the evolution
of the issue since the late 1980s. They also assess government responses to the problem of climate change and
the outlook for public policy actions. Chapter 14 examines the plight of developing nations that are struggling
with a formidable array of threats brought about by rapid population growth and resource exploitation.
Richard J. Tobin surveys the pertinent evidence, recounts cases of policy success and failure, and outlines the
remaining barriers (including insufficient commitment by rich countries) to achieving sustainable
development in these nations. In the final Chapter 15 we review the many environmental challenges that
continue to face the nation and the world and discuss innovative policy instruments that might help us to
better address these issues in the future.

We thank the contributing authors for their generosity, cooperative spirit, and patience in response to our
editorial requests. It is a pleasure to work with such a conscientious and punctual group of scholars. Special
thanks are also due to the staff of CQ Press/SAGE, including Charisse Kiino, Scott Greenan, Monica
Eckman, Sarah Christensen, Jennifer Jones, Erica DeLuca, Kelle Clarke, and Olivia Weber-Stenis. We are
particularly grateful for the very professional and extraordinarily thorough copyediting by Karen E. Taylor.

11
We owe a special debt to our colleagues who graciously agreed to review previous editions of the book and
offered many useful suggestions: William G. Holt, Birmingham-Southern College; Daniel Fiorino, American
University; Jeff W. Justice, Tarleton State University; Jack Rasmus, St. Mary’s College; Ninian Stein, Smith
College; Gerald A. Emison, Mississippi State University; Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo, University of Kentucky;
Sarah Anderson, University of California, Santa Barbara; Irasema Coronado, University of Texas at El Paso;
Robert Duffy, Colorado State University; Erich Frankland, University of Wyoming; Raymond Lodato,
University of Chicago; Melissa K. Merry, University of Louisville; and John W. Sutherlin, University of
Louisiana at Monroe. We also gratefully acknowledge support from the Department of Public and
Environmental Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. Finally, we thank our students at Carleton
College and UW–Green Bay for forcing us to rethink our assumptions about what really matters. As always,
any remaining errors and omissions are our own responsibility.

Norman J. Vig

Michael E. Kraft

12
About the Editors

Norman J. Vig
is the Winifred and Atherton Bean Professor of Science, Technology, and Society emeritus at Carleton
College. He has written extensively on environmental policy, science and technology policy, and
comparative politics and is coeditor with Michael G. Faure of Green Giants? Environmental Policies of the
United States and the European Union (2004) and with Regina S. Axelrod and David Leonard Downie of
The Global Environment: Institutions, Law, and Policy, 2nd ed. (2005).
Michael E. Kraft
is a professor of political science and the Herbert Fisk Johnson Professor of Environmental Studies
emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. He is the author of Environmental Policy and
Politics, 7th ed. (2018), and coauthor of Coming Clean: Information Disclosure and Environmental
Performance (2011, winner of the Lynton K. Caldwell award for best book in environmental politics and
policy) and of Public Policy: Politics, Analysis, and Alternatives, 6th ed. (2018). In addition, he is coeditor
of both the Oxford Handbook of Environmental Policy (2013) and Business and Environmental Policy
(2007) with Sheldon Kamieniecki and of Toward Sustainable Communities: Transition and
Transformations in Environmental Policy, 2nd ed. (2009), with Daniel A. Mazmanian.

13
About the Contributors

Richard N. L. Andrews
is a professor emeritus of public policy, environmental studies, environmental sciences and engineering,
and city and regional planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A primary focus of
his research and writing is the history of U.S. environmental policy. He is the author of Managing the
Environment, Managing Ourselves: A History of American Environmental Policy, 2nd ed. (2006), “The
EPA at 40: An Historical Perspective” (Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, 2011), “Reform or
Reaction: EPA at a Crossroads” (Environmental Sciences & Technology, 1995), and many other articles
on related topics.
David Bernell
is an associate professor of political science in the School of Public Policy at Oregon State University
and the coordinator of the energy policy concentration in the master’s and PhD programs in public
policy. His research and teaching focus on U.S. energy policy, energy security, and international
relations. He is the coauthor with Christopher Simon of The Energy Security Dilemma: U.S. Policy and
Practice (2016) and the author of Constructing U.S. Foreign Policy: The Curious Case of Cuba (2011). He
formerly served with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in the natural resources, energy,
science, and water divisions, and with the U.S. Department of the Interior as an adviser on trade and the
environment.
Christopher Bosso
is a professor of public policy at Northeastern University. His areas of interest include food and
environmental policy, science and technology policy, and the governance of emerging technologies. He
is author of Framing the Farm Bill: Interests, Ideology, and the Agricultural Act of 2014 (2017) and editor of
Feed Cities: Improving Local Food Access, Sustainability, and Resilience (2017) and Governing Uncertainty:
Environmental Regulation in the Age of Nanotechnology (2010). His 2005 book, Environment, Inc.: From
Grassroots to Beltway, was cowinner of the American Political Science Association’s Lynton K. Caldwell
award for best book in environmental politics and policy.
Hilary S. Boudet
is an assistant professor of climate change and energy in the School of Public Policy at Oregon State
University. Her research interests include environmental and energy policy, social movements, and
public participation in energy and environmental decision making. She coauthored, with Doug
McAdam, Putting Social Movements in Their Place: Explaining Opposition to Energy Projects in the United
States, 2000–2005 (2012). Her recent work focuses on public acceptance of hydraulic fracturing and
community-based interventions designed to encourage sustainable behavior.
Patricia Fernandez-Guajardo
is a Fulbright Scholar and PhD student in the School of Public Policy at Oregon State University. Her
master’s research examined water governance and institutional capacity in Mexico. Her current research
explores the water-energy nexus, specifically, the transitions from traditional irrigation systems to
integrated sustainable systems in the rural American West.

14
Luis E. Hestres
is an assistant professor of digital communication and affiliate faculty of the Center for Digital Politics
Research at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he teaches courses on digital media
production; the socioeconomic, cultural, and political aspects of digital media; and digital activism. His
work has been published in the journals New Media & Society, International Journal of Communication,
Social Media + Society, and Environmental Politics, and in The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate
Change Communication. His latest project is a book about climate change advocacy organizations and the
role that digital communication technologies have played in their development. The book will be
published by Lexington Books in 2019. Before earning his PhD from American University in 2014, Dr.
Hestres worked as a digital strategist at the U.S. House of Representatives and for several progressive
advocacy organizations in Washington, DC. Most recently, he was the Internet director for the 1Sky
climate change campaign, which merged with 350.org in 2011. For more information visit
www.luishestres.com.
Daniel A. Mazmanian
is a professor of public policy in the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern
California. From 2000 to 2005, he served as the C. Erwin and Ione Piper Dean and Professor of the
School of Policy, Planning, and Development (today, the Price School), and prior to that, he was Dean
of the School of Natural Resources and Environment (today, the School for Environment and
Sustainability) at the University of Michigan. Among his several books are Can Organizations Change?
Environmental Protection, Citizen Participation, and the Corps of Engineers (1979), Implementation and
Public Policy (1989), Beyond Superfailure: America’s Toxics Policy for the 1990s (1992), Toward Sustainable
Communities, 2nd ed. (2009), and Elgar Companion to Sustainable Cities (2014).
Matthew C. Nisbet
is a professor of communication studies at Northeastern University and editor-in-chief of the journal
Environmental Communication. The author of more than seventy-five peer-reviewed studies, book
chapters, and reports, Nisbet focuses on the role of communication and the media in environmental
advocacy and politics. Among awards and recognition, he has served as a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard
University’s Kennedy School of Government, a health policy investigator with the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation, and a member of the National Academies consensus study committee on science
communication. More information on his research and writing can be found at
www.matthewnisbet.org.
Rosemary O’Leary
is an environmental lawyer, Stene Chair Distinguished Professor, and director of the School of Public
Affairs at the University of Kansas. She has written extensively on the courts and environmental policy.
She is the winner of sixteen national research awards, including five senior scholar achievement awards
(the Gaus Award, the Waldo Award, the Routledge Award, the Frederickson Award, and the Provan
Award). In 2016, the article she coauthored with Susan Raines on alternative dispute resolution at the
EPA was selected as one of fourteen Public Administration Review articles “that have made important
contributions to the study of environmental policy, regulation, and governance” in the last seventy-five
years. She is coeditor, with Robert Durant and Daniel Fiorino, of the MIT Press book Environmental

15
 Governance Reconsidered: Challenges, Choices, and Opportunities, 2nd ed. (2017).
Sheila M. Olmstead
is a professor of public affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of
Texas at Austin, a visiting fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF) in Washington, DC, and a senior
fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. She was previously a
fellow and senior fellow at RFF (2010–2013) and an associate professor (2007–2010) and assistant
professor (2002–2007) of environmental economics at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental
Studies. Her research has been published in leading journals such as the Journal of Economic Perspectives,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and
Journal of Urban Economics. With Nathaniel Keohane, she is the author of the book Markets and the
Environment. From June 2016 to June 2017, she served on the President’s Council of Economic
Advisers.
Kent E. Portney
is a professor and the director of the Institute for Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the Bush
School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. Previously, he taught for many
years at Tufts University. He is the author of Sustainability (2015), Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously:
Economic Development, the Environment, and Quality of Life in American Cities, 2nd ed. (2013),
Approaching Public Policy Analysis (1986), Siting Hazardous Waste Treatment Facilities: The NIMBY
Syndrome (1991), and Controversial Issues in Environmental Policy (1992). He is also the coauthor of
Acting Civically (2007) and The Rebirth of Urban Democracy (1993), which won the American Political
Science Association’s 1994 Gladys M. Kammerer award for best book in American politics and the
American Political Science Association Organized Section on Urban Politics’ 1994 award for best book
in urban politics.
Daniel Press
is a professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he teaches
environmental politics and policy. He is the author of Democratic Dilemmas in the Age of Ecology (1994),
Saving Open Space: The Politics of Local Preservation in California (2002), and American Environmental
Policy: The Failures of Compliance, Abatement, and Mitigation (2015). California governors Gray Davis
and Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him to the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board, a state agency charged with enforcing state and federal water quality laws and regulations. He
served from 2001 to 2008. He currently serves as the executive director of the UC Santa Cruz Center
for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, the country’s foremost university-based organic
agriculture teaching and training farm.
Barry G. Rabe
is the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy and the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of
Environmental Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He
also serves as a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and chaired the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency Assumable Waters Committee from 2015 to 2017. He is the author
of numerous books and articles, including Statehouse and Greenhouse: The Emerging Politics of American
Climate Change Policy, which received the 2017 Martha Derthick Book Award from the American

16
 Political Science Association for making a lasting contribution to the study of federalism. His latest
book is Can We Price Carbon? (MIT Press, 2018), and he is also examining the politics of severance
taxes and sovereign wealth funds related to oil and gas production.
Henrik Selin
is an associate professor in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, where
he conducts research and teaches classes on global and regional politics and policymaking on the
environment and sustainable development. He is the author of Global Governance of Hazardous
Chemicals: Challenges of Multilevel Management (MIT Press, 2010), coauthor of The European Union and
Environmental Governance (Routledge, 2015), and coeditor of Changing Climates in North American
Politics: Institutions, Policymaking, and Multilevel Governance (MIT Press, 2009) and Transatlantic
Environment and Energy Politics: Comparative and International Perspectives (Ashgate, 2009). In
addition, he has authored and coauthored more than four dozen peer-reviewed journal articles and book
chapters, as well as numerous reports, reviews, and commentaries. He also serves as an associate editor
for the journal Global Environmental Politics.
Nicole E. Tichenor
is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of New Hampshire’s Sustainability Institute. Her
transdisciplinary research focuses on food system sustainability and food security. She has experience in
food and agricultural policy, spanning the local to national levels, through her work at the Douglas
County Food Policy Council in Kansas and the National Family Farm Coalition in Washington, DC.
She recently received her PhD from Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and
Policy, where she was awarded fellowships from the Friedman Foundation, the Robert and Patricia
Switzer Foundation, the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, and the Tufts Institute
of the Environment to support her research, teaching, and engagement efforts.
Richard J. Tobin
has spent most of his professional career working on international development. After retiring from the
World Bank, he has served as a consultant to UNICEF, the United Nations Development Programme,
the United Nations Population Fund, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank,
the Arab Administrative Development Organization, and the Organization for Security and Co-
operation in Europe. He continues to serve as consultant to the World Bank and has also worked on
projects funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United Kingdom’s Department
for International Development, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Stacy D. VanDeveer
is a professor in the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance at
the University of Massachusetts Boston. His research and teaching interests include the global politics
of resource overconsumption, international environmental policymaking and institutions, connections
between environmental and security issues, and comparative and EU environmental politics. In addition
to authoring and coauthoring over ninety articles, book chapters, working papers, and reports, he is the
coeditor or coauthor of nine books, including EU Enlargement and the Environment (2005), Changing
Climates in North American Politics (2009), Transatlantic Environment and Energy Politics (2009),
Comparative Environmental Politics (2012), Transnational Climate Change Governance (2014), The Global

17
 Environment, 4th ed. (2015), The European Union and Environmental Governance (2015), and Want,
Waste or War? (2015). He also coedits the journal Global Environmental Governance.
Edward P. Weber
is the Ulysses G. Dubach Professor of Political Science in the School of Public Policy at Oregon State
University. His research focuses on natural resource/environmental policymaking, policy
implementation, democratic accountability, sustainability, and the design and operation of alternative
decision making/governance institutions, particularly collaborative governance arrangements. He is the
author of Bringing Society Back In: Grassroots Ecosystem Management, Accountability, and Sustainable
Communities (2003), Changing Philosophies and Policies: Endangered Species Across the Years (2016), New
Strategies for Wicked Problems: Science and Problem Solving in the 21st Century (2017), and over fifty
articles and book chapters. He also is the former leader of the Thomas Foley Public Policy Institute at
Washington State University (2001–2008).

18
Part I Environmental Policy and Politics in Transition

19
Chapter 1 U.S. Environmental Policy Achievements and New
Directions

Michael E. Kraft
Norman J. Vig

During the 2016 presidential election, the Republican nominee and later president, Donald Trump,
frequently questioned the reality of climate change and pledged to dismantle the Obama administration’s
most significant environmental policy initiatives. These included the 2015 Clean Power Plan of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to phase out coal-fired power plants and the adoption of new
vehicle fuel economy standards embraced by the auto industry in 2012. These two rules were central
components of U.S. climate policy, and they allowed the nation to meet its commitments under the global
Paris Agreement on climate change that took effect in November of 2016. Trump also said during the
campaign that he would end U.S. participation in the climate accord and abolish the EPA itself. He later
modified the latter position to say he would work to “refocus the EPA on its core mission of ensuring clean
air, and clean, safe drinking water for all Americans.”1

In his first year in office, the new president followed through on these promises by appointing a prominent
climate change denier and fierce opponent of EPA regulation, Scott Pruitt, as the agency’s new administrator,
proposing large budgetary and staff cuts for the EPA and signing executive orders intended to reverse both
the Clean Power Plan and the fuel economy standards. He also pushed strongly for development of the
nation’s fossil fuel resources, among other actions to roll back Obama-era environmental policy achievements
(see Chapters 4 and 8). The previous EPA administrator in the Obama administration, Gina McCarthy,
described the proposed budgetary cuts as a “scorched earth budget that represents an all-out assault on clean
air, water and land.”2 Further signaling his intention to reverse President Obama’s climate change initiatives,
on June 1, 2017, Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement,
a move widely criticized by environmentalists, governors and mayors in many states, corporate CEOs, and
world leaders. Surveys indicate continued strong and bipartisan support by the American public for the accord
and for regulation of greenhouse gas emissions despite the president’s decision.3

The Democratic nominee in 2016, Hillary Clinton, offered a markedly different posture on these issues. She
described climate change as an “urgent threat and a defining challenge of our time.” She promised not only to
maintain Obama’s environmental policies but to strengthen them, and she called for “taking on the threat of
climate change and making America the world’s clean energy superpower.” The contrast between the
candidates and their party’s positions could hardly have been greater.4

These striking differences between the two major party nominees reflect the increasing partisan and
ideological polarization that had emerged on environmental and energy issues by the late 2010s.5 These
patterns differ greatly from the bipartisanship that characterized the environmental decade of the 1970s and
also was evident, albeit to a lesser extent, over most of the past five decades as the nation adopted dozens of
major public policies to deal with both national and global environmental problems, and provided the funds

20
necessary to implement those policies. Today, partisanship and ideological polarization often make it
exceptionally difficult to build political backing for policy adoption even when the general public is strongly
supportive of it, as was the case on climate change and energy issues in 2016 and 2017.6 Yet the political
conflicts today also speak to new challenges that the nation and world now face, especially climate change,
challenges requiring different kinds of governmental and private sector actions and new policy approaches that
differ from those that have been relied on in previous decades.

To help address these critical questions about the appropriate role of government and public policy, this
chapter provides a historical and institutional analysis that seeks to explain how policymakers have addressed
environmental problems and the policy choices they have made since the modern environmental era began in
the 1960s. We review the activities of government in addressing environmental problems, the structure of
U.S. government that can facilitate or hinder decisions, the processes of agenda setting and policymaking,
major policy decisions made over the past five decades, and what those policies have achieved since their
adoption. In the concluding chapter in this volume (Chapter 15), we return to the many remaining challenges
of the twenty-first century, and we explore the need for a fresh examination of environmental governance and
the possible new directions in policies that better match the problems that the nation and world now face.

21
The Challenges of Contemporary Environmental Problems
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, environmental issues soared to a prominent place on the political agenda in
the United States and other industrial nations. The new visibility was accompanied by abundant evidence,
domestically and internationally, of heightened public concern over environmental threats and broad support
for governmental action.7 By the 1990s, policymakers around the world had pledged to deal with a range of
important environmental problems, from protection of biological diversity to air and water pollution control.
Such commitments were particularly manifest at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (the Earth Summit) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where an ambitious agenda for redirecting
the world’s economies toward sustainable development was approved, and at the December 1997 Conference
of the Parties in Kyoto, Japan, where delegates agreed to a landmark treaty on global climate change.
Although it received far less media coverage, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in
September 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa, reaffirmed the commitments made a decade earlier at the
Earth Summit, with particular attention to the challenge of alleviating global poverty. The far-reaching goals
of the Earth Summit and the 2002 Johannesburg meeting were revisited at the 2012 Rio+20 United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development held once again in Brazil.

Despite the notable commitments made and actions taken at these and many other comparable meetings,
rising criticism of environmental programs also was evident throughout the 1990s and in the first two decades
of the twenty-first century, both domestically and internationally. So too were a multiplicity of efforts to chart
new policy directions. For example, intense opposition to environmental and natural resource policies arose in
the 104th Congress (1995–1997), when the Republican Party took control of both the House and Senate for
the first time in forty years. Ultimately, much like the earlier efforts in Ronald Reagan’s administration, that
antiregulatory campaign on Capitol Hill failed to gain much public support.8 Nonetheless, pitched battles
over environmental and energy policy continued in every Congress through the 115th (2017–2018). Both
antiregulatory actions and fights over them were equally evident in the executive branch, particularly during
the George W. Bush administration, as it sought to rewrite environmental rules and regulations to favor
industry and to increase development of U.S. oil and natural gas supplies on public lands, and even more
directly in the Donald Trump administration, which shared many of the same priorities (see Chapter 4). Yet
growing dissatisfaction with the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of environmental policies was by no
means confined to congressional conservatives and the Bush and Trump administrations. It could be found as
well among a broad array of interests, including the business community, environmental policy analysts,
environmental justice groups, and state and local government officials, although without the ideological
agenda that was so evident in the Bush and Trump administrations.9

Since 1992, governments at all levels have struggled to redesign environmental policy for the twenty-first
century. Under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the EPA tried to “reinvent” environmental
regulation through the use of collaborative decision making involving multiple stakeholders, public-private
partnerships, market-based incentives, information disclosure, and enhanced flexibility in rulemaking and
enforcement (see Chapters 7, 10, and 11).10 Particularly during the Clinton administration, new emphases

22
within the EPA and other federal agencies and departments on ecosystem management and sustainable
development sought to foster comprehensive, integrated, and long-term strategies for environmental
protection and natural resource management.11 Many state and local governments have pursued similar goals
with the adoption of innovative policies that promise to address some of the most important criticisms
directed at contemporary environmental policy (see Chapters 2 and 12).12 The election of President Barack
Obama in 2008 brought additional attention to new policy ideas, especially in his second term of office when
he pursued strong and often innovative policies on clean energy and climate change (see Chapter 4).

The precise way in which Congress, the states, and local governments—and other nations—will change
environmental policies in the years to come remains unclear. The prevailing partisan polarization and policy
gridlock of recent years may give way to greater consensus on the need to act; yet policy change rarely comes
easily in the U.S. political system. Its success likely depends on several key conditions: the saliency of the
issues and the degree of public support for action on them, the way various policy actors stake out and defend
their positions on the issues, media coverage of the problems as well as the political disputes over them, the
relative influence of opposing interests, and the state of the economy. Political leadership, as always, will play
a critical role, especially in articulating the problems and potential solutions, mobilizing the public and policy
actors, and trying to reconcile the deep partisan divisions that exist today on environmental protection and
natural resource issues. Political conflict over the environment is not going to vanish anytime soon. Indeed, it
may well increase as the United States and other nations struggle to define how they will respond to the latest
generation of environmental problems.

23
The Role of Government and Politics
The high level of political conflict over environmental protection efforts in the past several decades,
particularly evident at the beginning of the Trump administration, underscores the important role government
plays in devising solutions to the nation’s and the world’s mounting environmental ills. Global climate change,
population growth, the spread of toxic and hazardous chemicals, loss of biological diversity, and air and water
pollution require various actions by individuals and institutions at all levels of society and in both the public
and private sectors. These actions range from scientific research and technological innovation to improved
environmental education and significant changes in corporate actions and individual behavior. As political
scientists, we believe government has an indispensable role to play in environmental protection and
improvement even as we acknowledge the importance of corporate and individual choices. Because of this
conviction, we have commissioned chapters for this volume that focus on environmental policies and the
government institutions and political processes that affect them. Our goal is to illuminate that role and to
suggest needed changes and strategies.

Government plays a preeminent role in this policy arena primarily because environmental threats, such as
urban air pollution and climate change, pose risks to the public’s health and well-being that cannot be resolved
satisfactorily through private actions alone. That said, there is no question that individuals and
nongovernmental organizations, such as environmental groups and scientific research institutes, can do much
to protect environmental quality and promote public health. There is also no doubt that business and industry
can do much to promote environmental quality and foster the pursuit of national energy goals, such as
improved energy efficiency and increased reliance on renewable energy sources. We see evidence of extensive
and often creative individual, nonprofit, and corporate actions of this kind regularly, for example, in
sustainable community efforts and sustainable business practices, as discussed in Chapters 12 and 13.

Yet such actions often fall short of national needs without the backing of public policy, without, for example,
laws mandating control of toxic chemicals that are supported by the authority of government or standards for
drinking water quality and urban air quality that are developed and enforced by the EPA, the states, and local
governments. The justification for government intervention lies partly in the inherent limitations of the free
market system and the nature of human behavior. Self-interested individuals and a relatively unfettered
economic marketplace guided mainly by a concern for short-term profits tend to create spillover effects, or
externalities; pollution and other kinds of environmental degradation are examples. As economists have long
recognized, collective action is needed to correct such market failures (see Chapter 10). In addition, the scope
and urgency of environmental problems typically exceed the capacity of private markets and individual efforts
to deal with them quickly and effectively. For these reasons, among others, the United States and other
nations have relied on government policies—at local, state, national, and international levels—to address
environmental and resource challenges.

Adopting public policies does not imply, of course, that the voluntary and cooperative actions by citizens in
their communities or the various environmental initiatives by businesses cannot be the primary vehicle of
change in many instances. Nor does it suggest that governments should not consider a full range of policy

24
approaches—including market-based incentives, new forms of collaborative decision making, and information
provision strategies—to supplement conventional regulatory policies where needed. Public policy intervention
should be guided by the simple idea that we ought to use those policy approaches that offer the greatest
promise of working to resolve the problem at hand. Sometimes that will mean governments setting and
enforcing public health or environmental standards (regulation), and sometimes it will mean relying on
market incentives or information disclosure. More often than not, today, governmental agencies will employ a
combination of policy tools to reach agreed-upon objectives: improving environmental quality, minimizing
health and ecological risks, and helping to integrate and balance environmental and economic goals.

25
Political Institutions and Public Policy
Public policy is a course of government action or inaction in response to social problems. It is expressed in
goals articulated by political leaders; in formal statutes, rules, and regulations; and in the practices of
administrative agencies and courts charged with implementing or overseeing programs. Policy states the intent
to achieve certain goals and objectives through a conscious choice of means, usually within a specified period
of time. In a constitutional democracy like the United States, policymaking is distinctive in several respects: It
must take place through constitutional processes, it requires the sanction of law, and it is binding on all
members of society.

The constitutional requirements for policymaking were established well over two hundred years ago, and they
remain much the same today. The U.S. political system is based on a division of authority among three
branches of government and between the federal government and the states. Originally intended to limit
government power and to protect individual liberty, this division of power translates today into a requirement
that one build an often elusive political consensus among members of Congress, the president, and key
interest groups for any significant national policymaking to take place. That is, fragmented authority may
impede the ability of government to adopt timely and coherent environmental policy, as has been evident for
some of the most challenging of modern environmental problems. Weak national climate change policy is
something of a poster child for such governmental gridlock, which can be defined as an inability to act on
problems because of divided authority and prevailing political conflict (see Chapter 5). Dedication to
principles of federalism means that environmental policy responsibilities are distributed among the federal
government, the fifty states, and tens of thousands of local governments. Here, too, strong adherence to those
principles may result in no agreement on national policy action. Yet a federal structure also means that states
often are free to adopt environmental and energy policies as they see fit, as has been the case for natural gas
“fracking” where no major national policies have been in force. At least some of the states have a track record
of favoring strong environmental policies that go well beyond what is possible politically in Washington, DC.
California’s adoption of a strong climate change policy and Minnesota’s successful encouragement of
renewable energy sources are two notable illustrations of the considerable power that states have in the U.S.
political system (see Chapter 2).13 The flip side of that coin is that some states will choose to do far less than
others in the absence of national requirements.

Responsibility for the environment is divided within the branches of the federal government as well, most
notably in the U.S. Congress, with power shared between the House and Senate and jurisdiction over
environmental policies scattered among dozens of committees and subcommittees (see Table 1-1). For
example, approximately twenty Senate and twenty-eight House committees have some jurisdiction over EPA
activities.14 The executive branch is also institutionally fragmented, with at least some responsibility for the
environment and natural resources located in twelve cabinet departments and in the EPA, the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, and other agencies (see Figure 1-1). Most environmental policies are concentrated in
the EPA and in the Interior and Agriculture Departments; yet the Departments of Energy, Defense,
Transportation, and State are increasingly important actors as well. Finally, the more than one hundred

26
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Rambler
Club's house-boat
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
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eBook.

Title: The Rambler Club's house-boat

Author: W. Crispin Sheppard

Release date: January 20, 2024 [eBook #72766]

Language: English

Original publication: Philadelphia: Penn Publishing Company,

1912

Credits: Carla Foust, David Edwards and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file
was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE

RAMBLER CLUB'S HOUSE-BOAT ***
THE VOYAGE WAS BEGUN
The Rambler Club’s House-boat
BY W. CRISPIN SHEPPARD
AUTHOR OF

“THE RAMBLER CLUB AFLOAT”

“THE RAMBLER CLUB’S WINTER CAMP”
“THE RAMBLER CLUB IN THE MOUNTAINS”
“THE RAMBLER CLUB ON CIRCLE T RANCH”
“THE RAMBLER CLUB AMONG THE LUMBERJACKS”
“THE RAMBLER CLUB’S GOLD MINE”
“THE RAMBLER CLUB’S AEROPLANE”

Illustrated by the Author

THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY

PHILADELPHIA
MCMXII
 COPYRIGHT
1912 BY
THE PENN
PUBLISHING
COMPANY
The Rambler Club’s House-boat
 Introduction
The earlier adventures of Bob Somers and his friends have been
described in “The Rambler Club Afloat,” “The Rambler Club’s Winter
Camp,” “The Rambler Club in the Mountains,” “The Rambler Club on
Circle T Ranch,” “The Rambler Club Among the Lumberjacks,” “The
Rambler Club’s Gold Mine,” and “The Rambler Club’s Aeroplane.”
“The Rambler Club’s House-boat” deals with the adventures on the
Hudson of the Rambler boys and Jack Lyons and his friends.
They have an exciting and enjoyable time on the historic river, and
begin to appreciate its varied beauty and charm.
When the “Gray Gull,” Jack Lyons, Master, is close to Yonkers Bob
Somers is the means of aiding a young man in distress. Formerly he
had been the tutor of a boy residing at Nyack; but, for a reason
which reflects no discredit upon him, he lost his position.
A friendship springs up all around. The lads on the house-boat meet
the Nyack boy, who is enthusiastic over the idea of such a trip, and
decides to join.
Misunderstandings arise, and for a while the trip of the “Gray Gull”
promises to be the means of causing much trouble. But events so
shape themselves that in the end right prevails, and his chance
meeting with the boys turns out to be a fortunate thing for the former
tutor.
W. Crispin Sheppard.
 Contents
I.The “Gray Gull” 9
II.The Engine 30
III.“All Aboard!” 46
IV.A Voice in the Night 70
V.An Exploring Trip 91
VI. Joe in Trouble 105
VII.The Battle for the Boat 116
VIII.A Collision 130
IX. The Millionaire Boy 140
X.In the Automobile 155
XI. George Goes Along 166
XII.Pierre Catches Up 181
XIII.Colonel Ellison Takes a Hand 188
XIV.“That Chaffer Fellow” 196
XV.The Colonel Speaks His Mind 212
XVI.The War-Call 228
XVII.In the Red Car 240
XVIII.The Colonel is Angry 257
XIX.George is Wanted 266
XX.Two Nights 275
XXI.A Midnight Tow 286
XXII.The Push-Ball Contest 295
XXIII.Good News for Redfern 308
XXIV. The End of the Cruise 318
 Illustrations
PAGE

The Voyage Was Begun Frontispiece

“I Wish I Were Going With You” 82
“His Eyes Snapped Fiercely” 163
“Hang On Tight, Sir” 220
“See Who’s Coming” 302
The Rambler Club’s House-boat
 CHAPTER I
THE “GRAY GULL”
“Well, Bob Somers, I certainly am glad you came on to New York
with your father. Dad has been talking so much about you Rambler
chaps lately that I’ve been simply wild to meet the crowd.”
“And three of us are here for your inspection, Jack Lyons,” laughed
Bob. “Dave Brandon”—his hand fell on the shoulder of a stout, good-
humored-looking boy standing by his side—“is our poet, artist and
historian; and this is Tommy, or, perhaps, I’d better say, Mr. Thomas
Clifton.”
A very tall, thin boy flushed as Jack Lyons eyed him quizzically and
then heartily shook his extended hand.
“If titles go by the length of people I think you’d better add Esquire,
too,” gurgled Jack.
“For a long time Tommy was the smallest member of our crowd,”
explained Dave Brandon; “then, suddenly——”
“Nothing could keep him down,” supplemented Bob, with a smile.
“And I don’t wonder, after the way you boys have been living out in
the open,” said Jack. “But what’s the use of our standing here in the
hallway when there are comfortable chairs in my den up-stairs?”
“And I do feel most uncommonly tired,” confessed Dave, stifling a
yawn, “for, honestly, I didn’t sleep a minute more than twelve hours
last night.”
Jack laughed heartily as he led the way into the drawing-room.
Mr. John Lyons, his father, a widely-known New York lawyer and
promoter, resided in a fine mansion on Fifty-seventh Street.
Externally, there was nothing about the house to distinguish it in any
way from the rest of a long brown-stone row, but the interior was
famed for the wealth and beauty of its appointments.
“Thought you might like to take a look in here, fellows,” remarked
Jack. “Dad goes in a lot for painting and statuary. Some of these
things he picked up while abroad. Everything free for this day only.
Step around and see the animals.”
“It’s simply stunning!” cried Bob.
The furnishings were nearly all of the Louis XV period. A beam of
sunlight coming in through a half-opened window caressed in its
course original chairs and a couch which had once adorned an old
French chateau. Rare tapestries hung on the walls, while carved
chests and objects of copper and brass revealed their presence by
rich, glowing touches of color.
Many pictures by old and modern masters immediately attracted
Dave Brandon’s attention.
“Aren’t they wonderful?” he sighed.
“You’ve painted some pictures just as wonderful,” said Tommy.
“That’s the trouble,” laughed Dave, “wonderful—but in a different
way. Your father and Mr. Somers seemed to find a lot to talk about,
Jack.”
A hum of steady conversation was coming from an adjoining room
which Mr. Lyons used as a study.
“That reminds me,” said Jack; “you chaps will have to unbosom
yourselves at once. Gold mines, aeroplanes and all sorts of hunting
experiences seem to have been in your line. Come right up to my
den.”
The room on the top floor which Jack called his very own was about
twelve by sixteen feet, and furnished with several chairs, a desk and
table. Gridiron heroes and baseball idols looked at the beholder from
their cardboard prisons—Jack had them tacked up all over the walls,
while a fishing pole and old-fashioned musket decorated one corner.
The den did not appear extraordinarily neat; several coats, a pile of
books, and a box of note-paper with its contents scattered in glorious
confusion over the desk might have offended a fastidious taste. But
Jack airily explained that a very important matter had prevented him
from tidying up.
“And I’ll tell you all about it, fellows,” he said, animatedly, when his
visitors had seated themselves. “We—and by that I mean Joe
Preston, Aleck Hunt, Fred Winter and myself—have the dandiest
scheme. What is it?—Well, I want to hear your story first. Dad has
been telling me how you found the ‘Rambler Club’s Gold Mine’—he’s
a stockholder in the company, you know.”
“Yes; and just as soon as father said he intended to go East to see
Mr. Lyons on business we made up our minds to keep him
company,” said Bob, with a smile.
“It means a whole lot of work for me,” sighed Dave.
“It’s this way,” a peculiarly gruff voice broke in—Tommy was
speaking—“Dave always writes a history of our trips. He has about
two thousand, one hundred and ninety-seven pages finished up to
date. So, of course, this New York trip——”
“Say, fellows!” Jack Lyons jumped up and began pacing the floor. An
idea which made his eyes sparkle brightly had suddenly entered his
head. “Say, why don’t you chaps stay here a couple of weeks?”
“Eh?” said Tommy.
“And then your historian would have something worth while to
scribble about.”
“How?” asked Dave.
“Well, honest, I can’t keep still about it a minute longer.” Jack Lyons’
voice indicated a spirit fairly bubbling over with enthusiasm. “Why,
we’ve got hold of a house-boat—a real h-o-u-s-e-b-o-a-t, mind you;
and——”
“Intend to take a trip somewhere?” asked Tommy, eagerly.
“Do we?—Well, I should rather say so! It’s all arranged, too. Rah—
rah! The ‘Gray Gull,’ Jack Lyons, master, is bound from New York to
Albany. Now”—Jack paused; his arm swept around in a half-circle
—“you chaps ought to, and, by ginger, must go along.”
“I felt it coming,” sighed Dave. “That means another book to write.”
“How about it?” queried Jack, eagerly. “Don’t say no. It’ll be one of
the greatest trips you ever had. Joe, Aleck and Fred are dandy
chaps. Say, can’t you go out with me this morning to see our house-
boat?”
“Well, r-a-t-h-e-r,” cried Tommy—“eh, Bob?”
Bob nodded.
“Sure thing. It will give us a good chance to see a bit of New York.
Where is the ‘Gray Gull,’ Jack?”
“Moored on the Harlem River. Hurray! I’ll call up Joe Preston just as
soon as you’ve told me a bit about yourselves. Now, somebody,
please fire away.”
The “somebody” happened to be Bob Somers, and, as he related
modestly the story of their many adventures, Jack Lyons’ eyes
opened wider with interest and enthusiasm.
“Great Scott; what corking times! Don’t I wish I’d been along. I must
tell Joe you’re here.” And Jack sprang to the side of his desk, where
the boys noticed a telephone.
“Talk about that for a great scheme,” remarked Tom.
“Talk through it for a greater,” returned Jack. “Hello, hello—yes, that’s
the number. Hello, Joe Preston! Not Joe! Well, won’t you please tell
him that Jack Lyons is at the ’phone?”
“He’s at home, fellows.” Jack looked up; then turned toward the
instrument again. “Hello, Joe! Say, old boy, the Rambler chaps are
here; honest—no joke about it. We’re going right out to see the ‘Gray
Gull.’ Can you meet us there? Good! Yes; maybe they’ll take the trip
with us. Wouldn’t that be jolly! You pick up Aleck and Fred. Race
you? Sure! Good-bye.”
“Fellows, you’ll meet the whole bunch,” laughed Jack, as he hung up
the receiver. “Now, I’ll explain how we happened to get hold of the
house-boat. A client of dad’s, who went out west, turned it over to
him in part payment for his services. If dad didn’t know what to do
with the ‘Gray Gull,’ I did; and the way Joe, Aleck and Fred jumped
at the chance to go on a cruise would have made you laugh.”
“How do you make it go?” asked Dave, languidly.
“Oh, I’m coming to that. A Mr. Marshall we know owned a motor
boat; and, last month, this boat motored right into a barge. That kind
of scared Mr. Marshall—he found he didn’t like the sport so much as
he thought he would; and what do you think?”
“Lots of things,” cried the interested Tommy; “go ahead.”
“When he heard about our house-boat he said we could have the
engine for it. Wasn’t that nice of him?”
The Ramblers agreed that it showed a thoughtful and proper spirit.
“That’s what I say,” exclaimed Jack, enthusiastically. “And he’s going
to have the motor sent right over, too.”
“Who will install it in the house-boat?” queried Bob.
“Jim Benton, a machinist who has done a lot of work for dad. But
come on, fellows; Joe thinks he can beat us out to the Harlem River.
And say, Bob, when you get a chance, ask your father about going
on that trip with us.” And Jack, happy and excited, fairly dashed out
of the room.
They were on the street in a few moments. It was a very hot morning
in August, with hardly a breath of air stirring.
“Fellows, I have a dreadful fear that I’m going to melt,” sighed Dave
Brandon, vigorously mopping his face.
“Do try to last until you see the house-boat,” urged Tom, with a broad
grin.
Seeking shade wherever it could be found, the four walked toward
the elevated railroad station at Eighth Avenue and Fifty-third Street.
The city, full of noise, life and color, possessed immense attractions
for the Ramblers, and Jack Lyons’ patience was sorely tried, as they
often stopped to look about them. When, at last, all had safely
boarded a train for One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street he breathed a
sigh of heartfelt satisfaction.
“Dave, this is quite a change, after the plains and mountains of
Wyoming,” remarked Bob Somers.
The stout boy, gazing through half-closed eyes at the rows of
buildings and streets flashing by, nodded.
“Not much here to remind us of Lone Pine Ranch, Bob,” he said.
Station after station dropped behind them. At One Hundred and
Tenth Street the train swung around a great curve, with Morningside
Heights, crowned by the impressive, partly finished cathedral of St.
John the Divine, to their left, while on the right they had a good view
of the upper end of Central Park.
“Isn’t it stunning!” cried Bob.
“And to think that we’re actually in New York,” murmured Tommy.
“One Hundred and Twenty-fifth!” called out the conductor, a few
minutes later.
The boys caught a glimpse of a wide, busy thoroughfare. Then the
train sent the rails spinning swiftly behind it again, and the terminus
of the line was soon reached.
The four, mounting a stairway, found themselves on a great iron
viaduct sloping downward toward the east.
“What dandy views!” cried Dave Brandon, whose languid mood
seemed to drop suddenly away. “Magnificent! Eh, Bob?”
“Corking!” Bob’s voice was full of enthusiasm.
To the northwest rose a high bluff with houses on its summit, while
near at hand the boys could see the famous Polo grounds. Some
distance off, veiled in a scintillating haze, were other hills, with vague
suggestions of buildings dotted here and there over their surface.
Smoke from passing tugs on the Harlem River seemed to hover
almost motionless in the air, sometimes pierced by bursts of steam
which shone dazzlingly white in the sunlight.
But Jack Lyons was in no mood to appreciate the beauties of this
scene; he wanted not only to be the first to arrive at their meeting
place, but to show his interested visitors the “Gray Gull” without
delay. So he immediately began walking along the viaduct at a rate
which made them hustle.
“First time I’ve ever been in a walking match,” chuckled Tom. “How
far is it?”
“We’ll soon be there,” answered Jack, cheerily. “Joe Preston will
never win this race.”
In a few minutes they reached a bridge and began crossing the
Harlem River.
“There’s the famous High Bridge, fellows,” exclaimed Jack, pointing
to the north. “A dandy, eh? And the ‘Gray Gull’ is moored this side.”
“Good!” sighed Dave.
A noisily-puffing tug, towing a flotilla of empty barges, was
approaching, and, as a hoarse blast came over the silent air and was
answered by the whistle of another boat, the stout boy gave
unmistakable evidence of a desire to hold up the crowd for the
double purpose of rest and observation.
“Don’t stop, fellows,” pleaded Jack.
All laughed at Dave’s comical expression of dismay, and kept on
moving.
A wide roadway led down to the river, and this stretch Jack took at a
pace which taxed even the long-legged Clifton.
At intervals the New York boy cheerily exclaimed: “Not much further!”
or words to that effect, and just when Dave was beginning to have a
dreadful presentiment that this meant nearly all the way to the High
Bridge he varied the monotony by announcing: “Hooray! I knew we’d
beat ’em. There’s the house-boat, now.”