Horace Stevens

“ On the contrary, it would tend to make them more than ever supporters of the policy which is designed to retain for the people the land that belongs to them.
The argument offered that the creation of a forest reserve withholds land from taxation is a shallow one. If a timber syndicate can afford to buy a township of timber and pay taxes on it for ten years in order to make a profit on the advance in value, cannot the people afford to retain that same land and go without the taxes in order to realize the profit on the advance in value? ”

“ The decision of Judge Ross in the case was one of the most remarkable documents I ever perused. Prominent lawyers of Los Angeles, who attended the arguments and familiarized themselves with every phase of the situation, declared in emphatic terms that the attorneys for the Scrippers had made much the best showing, and that there was no possible excuse for Judge Ross to decide against them. Everybody on our side felt the same way because the oil men had certainly made a lamentable showing. ”

“ The cattle owner who feels confident of getting his share of the range, if left to his own devices entirely, has no word of commendation for a system of regulation which guarantees to a weaker cattleman a just share of the public range. One would expect, too, that the great majority of the people, who have no interest except that possessed by every citizen, would favor the forest reserve system, for it proposes to retain for them the vast wealth that is theirs. ”

“ Too much praise cannot be accorded this famous body for its earnest efforts in probing the corruptive methods employed in acquiring title to the Oregon timber lands. By process of fraud of various kinds, millions of acres of the public domain, comprising practically the cream of an immense area, had passed into the hands of Eastern speculators and large lumber syndicates, whose agents had accomplished their base designs through the bribery of public officials, and by other corruptive tactics of equal degradation. ”

“ THE chief opposition to the Government's forestry policy comes from a source inspired by selfish motives. In the efforts that are being made to have the reserves, or the best portions of them, restored to public entry, there exists a powerful reminder of a greedy herd feasting its eyes upon a farmer's inclosed cornfield, whose waving plumes excites a beastly appetite that can only be satisfied by the sacrifice of the crop intended for human comfort. ”

“ Not more than one township was reserved for Indian allotments, and from this congested district must come the miserable existence of a race that has been referred to poetically in the dim, distant past as the "noble redmen of the forest"—after they have been further robbed by designing whites— until such time as the last one has answered the final call to the happy hunting grounds, and his memory lives only as a tradition of wrong. ”

“ But there was design on the magnificent timber from the very start, and the proposition to throw the reservation open for settlement under the farcical Homestead Act quoted, was merely a ruse to cloak the real motives of those interested, who figured wisely that few honest claimants would attempt to comply with the prohibitive conditions of the law, and go there with the idea of making a home in every sense of the word. ”

“ The protection of the forest and the protection of the range by wise use are two divisions of a problem vastly larger and more important than either. This is the problem of the conservatism of all our National resources. This is the basic problem, and it is a very practical and definite one. If we conserve our natural resources we shall prosper. If we destroy them, no amount of success in any other direction will keep us prosperous. ”

“ That self-interest is the basis of nearly all this agitation against the creation of forest reservations, is evidenced by the fact that none of its advocates have yet advanced a single argument that appeals to common sense. They have indulged in glittering generalities, and purposely ignored every phase of reason and practically all elements of truth in their representations pertaining to the actual situation.
No person imbued with a grain of intelligence can voice any honest protest against the creation of the reserves in accordance with President Roosevelt's well-defined plans ”

“ The usual policy of disposing of Federal and State timber for practically nothing has acted powerfully, particularly in the West, to keep the selling price of stumpage far below its legitimate value. It is not surprising that it has always been impossible for the bulk of the owners of timber to have a broad view of the lumber industry and close acquaintance with the lumber market, for most of the cost of producing lumber lies in logging and manufacture, and the margin of profit has varied widely. ”

“ Not content with grabbing all the vacant timber lands of Northern California that they could lay their hands on, with that reckless abandon creditable to a buccaneer of old, they overstepped the bounds of discretion, and seized upon the holdings of many poor old miners who had been in peaceful possession of their claims for a quarter of a century or more, and who felt secure in their property rights by reason of having complied with the laws in relation to assessment work upon their mineral entries, even though their claims were not patented. ”

“ It was none of my business to undertake to expose any of these fraufiulent transactions, and I exceeded my authority in doing so; but the methods of these looters were too rank to go unnoticed altogether, and I considered that one of the fundamental aids to my own cause was in pointing out the manifest weaknesses of those I was seeking to deter from menacing the mining industry.
There is nothing quite so effective in the suppression of vice or wrongdoing in any form as wholesale exposure. Turn on the light of publicity and there is a general scurrying to cover of every instinct of rascality. ”

“ Control and disposition of the public lands is one of the most important problems now before the American Government, for we have reached a period in our development when control of natural products vitally affects the personal and business interests of all the people. That the public land should be given free to the people has long been one of our most cherished principles. ”

“ I could see, too, that politics actuated the law officer in his conclusions more than any sense of justice, because the Scrippers were decidedly unpopular in the community, and the voting element was strongly in favor of the alleged "poor man's method" of taking up these oil lands through mineral locations. As a wealthy syndicate afterwards secured control of nearly all the tracts embraced in the placer mining locations, it is obvious that the scheme to arouse public sentiment against the Scrippers was part of a well-laid plot to use the local residents as catspaws. ”

“ I have personal knowledge that the Indians of California. Oregon, Washington and the British Possessions were accustomed to extend the most careful guardianship over the forests, and until the white man came with his ideas of commercial greed, and destroyed the savage instincts of protection. there had never been a great forest fire of any serious consequence in all this vast wilderness, by any act of human hands, and there is no doubt that conflagrations of this character wreak more damage to standing timber than all the other causes combined. ”

“ The whole weight of the movement in favor of National forests is squarely against a reckless use of the timber resources, but it is emphatically in favor of the legitimate use of timber. The points of vital importance are that the remaining supply of timber must be used with the utmost economy and that in every case reproduction must be absolutely assured.
"Far beyond the present influence of the National forests upon the lumber supply will be their importance in the future. The United States is now facing a serious decrease in the available supply of timber. ”

“ Nevertheless they are anxious to secure a tract of land on which they will ultimately make their home. I think in construing the homestead law the character of the country in Western Oregon should be taken into consideration. It is not so easy to make a home on a tract of land here as it is in an open prairie country, nevertheless we are very anxious that the country shall be settled up and that homesteaders shall be allowed to exercise the right of entry and to secure their titles and ultimately make their homes on the land. ”

“ The forest reserve policy therefore includes neither the retarding of settlement nor the hampering of the lumber industry. Incidentally, the forest reserve policy extends to the regulation of grazing on a reservation, the building of roads, cutting of timber, etc.
It would be easy to foresee that the forest reserve idea would meet strong opposition from those persons who wish to acquire timber lands and those who wish to graze their cattle upon the public domain unrestricted. The capitalist with money to invest can see no good in a forest reserve. ”

“ Under the provisions of the order of suspension, all further entries of public lands in the Susanville district were prohibited until such time as the Land Department in Washington had been afforded opportunity for makings investigation. It was a bitter pill for the timber thieves to swallow, and they did so with equal grace to that displayed by a shark in becoming reconciled to the unexpected loss of its prey. ”

“ Thus, unless a tract is well-known to be mineral in character, and is notoriously operated for mining purposes at the time of survey of the township, it is just as liable to be returned as agricultural land as anything else, because the deputy surveyor, upon whose field notes the Surveyor-General always bases his returns, is usually in a hurry to get over as much ground as possible, and consequently pays no heed to geological conditions, even if he knew anything about them. ”

“ The course the Government is now pursuing is to carry out the traditional home-making policy of the United States as to its public lands. The men most interested in opposing the action of the Administration are those who are endeavoring to upset the traditional course of the Government, and are doing all in their power to turn the public lands over to be exploited by rich men and powerful corporations whose interests are hostile to those of the homemakers. ”

“ I was mad all the way through by this time, and it had occurred to me that there must be something radically wrong with the eternal fitness of things when the laws could afford a citizen no protection as against the threatened onslaught of an armed mob, and that flimsy legal technicalities might result in the taking of human life. ”

“ Moneyed men were here from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and other Middle West States, eager to make investments and grasp the unlimited opportunities offered of reaping big returns, and as a result, thousands of men were sent into the forests of Tillamook and Clatsop Counties, Oregon, as well as throughout various sections of Washington, to file on timber claims, and in nearly every instance, the entrymen had contracted in advance to transfer their titles to some lumber company, or syndicate of Eastern capitalists. ”

“ Inasmuch as a large number of the entrymen sold the land to one party immediately after proof, coupled with the fact that the lands are not tillable even after the timber is removed, goes to show that the entries were not made in good faith for the purpose of a home, but in the interest and for the benefit of the party to whom sold.
It would seem from the foregoing that a failure on the part of the persons making entry ou these lands to comply with the liberal provisions of the law is recognized. ”

“ Frequently, in passing through heavy bodies of timber even now, the casual observer is struck by the appearance of some giant of the forest with charred trunk, and attributes the fact to the pranks of lightning, but in reality it is merely an isolated instance where the pitch and abnormal quantity of bark has contributed an extra attraction to the flames, although the main body of the tree might have suffered an insignificant amount of damage by the operation, so swiftly had been the course of the flames. ”

“ As to the forest reserves, their creation has damaged just one class; the managers and owners of great lumber companies, which by illegal, fraudulent or unfair methods, have desired to get possession of the valuable timber of the public domain, to skin the land, and to abandon it when impoverished well nigh to the point of worthlessness. ”

“ Imagine a small hamlet of a few hundred inhabitants suddenly aroused from its pastoral slumbers by the clang and clamor of commercial greed, and the reader will have a fair idea of the conditions that prevailed incident to the abnormal rush of Eastern speculators and their hordes of followers to acquire title to the valuable timber lands of that region. Unquestionably the finest body of sugar pine timber in the world existed in the basin known as
Town of La Porte, Plumas County, California. ”

“ The man who acquires timber land hopes to sell it to some large corporation. The corporation, founded by men who foresee a scarcity of timber, expects to hold the timber hind until it has greatly enhanced in value. The wait may be ten. twenty-five or fifty years, but the certainty of advancing value makes the purchase a safe speculative investment. Much of the timber land goes into the possession of corporations that do not desire it for milling purposes. ”

“ No wonder it was enough to inflame the imagination and cause men to do all sorts of things in order to obtain a foothold where the returns were so certain and phenomenal.
Titles to the various vacant tracts were sought in two ways: First, by applicants through the placer mining laws of the United States, in claims of twenty acres each, and almost simultaneously by claimants under the forest reserve lieu land Act of June 4, 1897. The latter were called "Scrippers," while the others were commonly known as "Mineral Locators." ”

“ The first effect of National forests upon prices, particularly where there is still a great deal of available timber, is to raise the price of stumpage toward its intrinsic value by withdrawing the excess supply of low-priced timber from the market. On the other hand, as the supply of timber dwindles and values are forced upward by holding for speculation, the effect of the forests will be to check advance in prices and make them lower. ”

“ Harry Lane, the reform Mayor of Portland, Oregon, who is a strong advocate of the Government's forestry policy, and probably the best posted person in the Northwest on the subject and it has been one of the keenest pleasures of my existence to analyze the various features entering into the forestry question. It is certainly an interesting study, and probably appeals to the lover of nature with a greater degree of harmony than an other topic of discussion. ”

“ To prevent wanton destruction of timber, young and old, and to retain ownership in the Government, is the end to be accomplished by the forest reserve policy. At no time has the reserve policy contemplated the withholding of lands suited to settlement or the withholding of timber needed for the manufacture of lumber. ”