NEWS AND NOTES. 



In two opinions rendered May first the Supreme Court of the 

 United States not only upheld the constitutionality of the estab- 

 lishment of the National Forests, but it settled, once for all, that 

 the Federal Government, and not the States, may say how re- 

 served public land shall be used. 



The entire course concurred with Justice Lamar, who an- 

 nounced the opinions when settling the cases of Fred Light, who 

 will remain enjoined from allowing his cattle to graze in Holy 

 Cross National Forest, and of Pierre Grimaud, K. P. Carajous 

 and of Antonio Inda, who are under indictment for grazing sheep 

 in Sierre National Forest, in violation of Regulation 45 of the Sec- 

 retary of Agriculture. 



"The United States can prohibit absolutely and fix the terms on 

 which its property may be used," said the Justice in the Colorado 

 case. "As it can withhold or reserve the land, it can do so indefi- 

 nitely. It is true that the United States does not and cannot hold 

 property as a monarch may for private and personal purposes, 

 but that does not lead to the conclusion that it is without the 

 rights incident to ownership, for the Constitution declares that 

 'Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful 

 rules and regulations respecting the territory or property belong- 

 ing to the United States.' 



"All the public lands of the nation are held in trust for the 

 people of the whole country. And it is not for the courts to say 

 how that trust shall be administered ; that is for Congress to de- 

 termine. 



"The courts cannot compel it to set aside the lands for settle- 

 ment, nor to suffer them to be used for agricultural or grazing 

 purposes; nor interfere when in the exercise of its discretion, 

 Congress establishes the forest reserves for what it decides to be 

 national and public purposes. In the same way and in the exercise 

 of the same trust, it may disestablish a reserve and devote the 

 property to some other national and public purpose. 



"Those are rights incident to proprietorship, to say nothing of 

 the power of the United States as a sovereign over the property 

 belonging to it. 



"Even a private owner should be entitled to protection against 

 willful trespasses, and statutes, providing that damages done by 

 animals cannot be recovered unless the land had been enclosed 

 with a fence of the size and material required, do not give per- 



