Joseph McKenna

“ This action was brought by appellants to recover the value of certain timber cut from the public lands of the United States in the state of Colorado, called 'tie slash' or 'tie slashing,' the term being used to describe the tops of trees the bodies of which have been used for making railroad ties.
The right of recovery is based upon contracts with the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railway Company which had been given the right to cut timber upon the public lands adjacent to the line of its road by the Act of Congress of March 3, 1875, c. 152, 18 Stat. 482 (Comp. St. §§ 4921-4926) . ”

“ We think it is clear that appellants are not within the provisions of the act. They are not and were not in the designated classes nor contemplated the uses which the act protects. They were agents of the railway company for so much of the timber as was to be used in railroad construction; of what was left they were simply vendors for profit. To enable them to so use the act or to use it for any but the designated purposes would be a violation of that provision of the act which forbids its operation 'to enlarge the rights of any railway company to cut timber on the public domain' ”

“ Thereafter appellants entered into another contract with the company under which they manufactured additional ties and delivered them to it, and a further amount of 'tie slash' was left. A large amount of this appellants agreed to sell to the Fraser River Timber Company of Denver, Colorado, and to the Leyden Coal Company of the same place they sold 200 cars of mining props cut by them from the 'tie slash,' all to be used in the state of Colorado. ”