502 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Morning Journal the f(>llo\vin.i;- sunituary apjicared : 



"The entrymen who will tile on these lands consist of 

 three classes: a small portion of them are lookin^^ for 

 tillable soil on which to make a home; about one-third of 

 them want to take up 640 acres as a nucleus for a small 

 stock ranch, while the greater number are persons who 

 hope to iirove u]) on 640 acres and then sell at a good 

 price." Continuing, this paper says: "The assassination 

 of the late Thomas Lyons of Grant County is said to have 

 been due to a feud he had with several (HO-acre entry- 

 men who had sent him word that he must 1)U\ ilieni out if 

 he wanted to keep his range intact." 



The situation revealed by this frank statement brings 

 out in clear relief the evils which will follow the api)lica- 

 tion of this law. Not ten per cent of the applicants can 

 actually sui)port themselves from the grazing on 640 

 acres, hence the sole object of the filing will be to obtain 

 private title to government land, in order to hold up 

 some one who can make use of it. by "selling out :it .i 

 high price." 



The grazing business requires large units, and is the 

 only possible u.se for most of this land. ( )nce the land 

 is fenced off by numerous 640-acre land speculators, 

 whose sole hope of return lies in selling to these .stock- 

 men, the grazing business is immediately disrupted on an 

 enormous scale, and cannot be resumed until after the 

 three-year period required for the applicants to prove up. 

 and the completion of negotiations for the jnirchase of 

 the lands. Rut if these lands are held at speculative 

 prices, either the overhead charges for ca])ital and in- 

 terest on the grazing business will be enormously in- 

 creased, or the stockmen will be driven cnit at lea'st tem- 

 porarily. Ultimately, by the ruthless operation of ecf)- 

 nomic laws, grazing units will be reassembled ot siif- 

 ticient size to permit the industry to resume its functions. 

 The worst effects of this speculative raid u])on the 

 arid public lands was jjostponed by the reipiirements that 

 the officials of the Interior Department nnist first exam- 

 ine and classify the land as non-irrigable, non-timbered, 

 and chiefly valuable for grazing, and the raising of forage 

 crops. But the delays caused by this safeguarding of 

 ]>ublie interests are proving too irksome for the .s])ecu- 

 'ators, and by a recent amendment offered by ;i south- 

 western senator, all barriers are swejjt away and the 

 applicant can file on any unreserved public land regard- 

 less of its character, whether timbered or otherwise. 

 Should this amendment pass, the flood-gates are open and 



the public lands will disappear over night in the worst 

 scramble the West has ever seen. 



We hold no brief for the cattle baron or sheep man. 

 who in the jjast has monoiiolized the free range, fenced 

 up the waterholes and driven out the homesteader by 

 intimidation :ind violence. He should long ago have 

 been made to pav into the public treasury the value of 

 the grazing jjrivilegcs on public lands, just as today he 

 is ])aying for his grazing rights on both National Forests 

 and Indian Reservations. But the stockmen fought this 

 measure — and now find themselves facing ruin on the 

 other horn of the dilemma. 



In this contest for private gain, where does the public 

 |)rolit, .-ukI wb.it thought is being devoted to the stimula- 

 tion of the meat production on the western range? 

 Whatever other effects the I'all amendment to the stock 

 gazing bill will have, // u'ill at unce and seriously decrease 

 the production of meat, at the very moment zvhen our 

 national existence is threatened, and the triumph of hu- 

 man liberty and democracy depends directly upon in- 

 creasing the food supply. .\nd to add a touch of satire 

 to this vicious legislation, the amendment recently passed 

 the Senate as a rider to the food bill. 



How long will the nation contiiuie to close its eyes 

 to the fact that public welfare cannot always be best 

 served 1)y permitting the lunx-stricted operation of ])rivate 

 greed? The new doctrine of public su])ervision and regu- 

 lation for the gcKjd of the whole is winning its way 

 slowly. The National b^orests are the bulwarks of these 

 principles. The history of the public range outside of 

 the l*"orests ma\ well be studied as an oliject lesson in 

 the effects of unrestrained individual initiative. 



This enormous and costh' economic readjustment of 

 the business of meat ])roduction on the Western ranges 

 would probably have had to come some time, for the rea- 

 son that the jjolitical ])ressure by .states and localities 

 seeking development and increased state revenue from 

 taxation find no balancing or opposing force in the De- 

 partment of the Interior, whose traditional policy is to 

 dispose as r.apiilK' as possible of ])ublic lands within its 

 jurisdiction. 



But that this movement should have been permiltecl 

 to come to a head just when its disturbing effects upon 

 meat production are most serious and keenly felt — and 

 that the very bill ])assed to conserve the nation's food 

 supply should be selected as the vehicle for its pas.sage, 

 betrays the utter disregard for public welfare and short- 

 sighted selfishness inherent in the doctrine of individual 

 ism. Such measures will not aid us to win the w.ir. 



'THE College of Forestry of the University of Wash- 

 ington, one of the earliest of the forestry schools 

 in the West, has been forced by the war emergency to 

 entirely change its scholastic plan. The calendar for 

 the coming year just issued, announces that all regis- 

 trations have been postponed in this college until Oc- 

 tober 1, and that the university has elected for the 

 period of the war to substitute the four quarter plan 

 for the college year instead of the usual semester plan. 



A S an interesting development in the wartime use 

 for wood, it is stated by the authorities that the 

 mobilization camp at the State Fair grounds, Syracuse, 

 where 25,000 men are quartered, consumes more than 

 33 cords of wood a day for cooking purposes, or a total 

 of 1,000 cords a month. This would represent the ma- 

 terial obtained from necessary thinning and improve- 

 ment cuttings in half a dozen good-sized New York 

 farm woodlots. 



