PRESENT STATUS OF THE PARK QUESTION. 12/ 



I want very briefly to tell you what our plan is, or the outline 

 of suggestion at least that we have worked to have adopted. The 

 country embraced in this reservation comprises 800,000 acres, 200,- 

 000 acres of which are water. The Indians have taken in their al- 

 lotments over 100,000 acres (I am speaking' in round numbers), 

 which leaves something like 500,000 acres of land. The government 

 has surveyed some of it. When there is less than 17,000 feet of stand- 

 ing pine upon a forty-acre tract it has been put down as "agricul- 

 tural land;" when the standing pine equals or exceeds that amount 

 it is scheduled as "pine lands." As the official records stand, upon 

 this arbitrary classification, there is almost 400,000 acres of this 

 so-called agricultural land, although nothing is indicated of its ca- 

 pacity for agriculture. It is the remaining 100,000 acres of "pine 

 land" (if this survey be verified) that we are asking to have created 

 into a forest reserve. 



That would mean that as trees or portions of forest were or 

 became mature thev would be harvested. It would mean a perma- 

 nent force of men with habitations for their families, put by the gov- 

 ernment in charge to secure the best and most rapid reforestation. 

 It would mean good roads. It would mean a large industry found- 

 ed in a part of the state that is adapted to it as it is to nothing else. 

 Only by man working with nature can he achieve the best success. 

 Southern and central Minnesota can depend upon agriculture by it- 

 self, but northern Minnesota if its resources are to be developed 

 must make its tree culture profitable to help out its scantier agricul- 

 tural possibilities. 



■ This is a matter that might well command the careful attention 

 of our representatives in congress while there is yet time to save 

 this forest. One of those congressmen who would have taken the 

 deepest interest in arriving at a wise solution of the future cultiva- 

 tion of this country is reported to have said that "in his opinion the 

 best thing to do with a tree was to cut it down and make a home for 

 a settler." A half truth is very dangerous. We may all agree with 

 him about that, but why should he object to having that tree cut 

 in such a manner that there would be another pine tree next year 

 for another settler's home and still another the next year and 

 the year after that. (Applause.) The apathy of our congressmen, 

 which if continued will result in the exploitation of the country by 

 a few lumbermen and townsite men for their own benefit, could not 

 be if the good people who sympathize with this movement would 

 make their interest known and demand good legislation for this 

 proposed opening. 



