A LUMBERMAN'S VIEW OF THE FORESTRY SITUATION. 251 



from time to time by the newspaper slips that I have cut out now 

 and then, and which I will read to you, of the immense amount of 

 timber land that is being thrown open to the public having forestry 

 advantages. There is no objection to anybody cutting down their 

 timber, and there is abundant reason why private owners should cut 

 that does not apply to the United States. I therefore give it as my 

 belief, from my knowledge of the frontier of the north country, that 

 the United States should withdraw all its timber lands from the 

 market. What has been the result this fall? (Reads newspaper 

 clipping stating that pressure has been brought to bear upon the 

 government to place certain of its lands upon the market under the 

 dead and down timber act.) That is the first step, pressure brought 

 to bear upon Secretary Hitchcock under the action of the dead and 

 down timber act to throw open to the forestry method of lumbering, 

 which is carried on by all lumbermen, causing the destruction of 

 that much forest, lands the title of which should be presedved in the 

 United States or for the Indians Ayho own it. The theory is, of 

 course, that the Indians need the money and that the timber would 

 be destroyed if not cut this winter. There is no doubt but that the 

 Indians want the money, whether they get it by cutting ofif the 

 timber or any other way, but there is no danger of destruction. The 

 claim that this timber will deteriorate so it is worth little if not 

 sold this year has no bearing with me. The idea of the forestry 

 people, which in my opinion is the correct idea, is to reserve the 

 timber if necessary, and if necessary to buy it of the Indians upon 

 a fair estimate to be made by commissioners and reserve that money 

 so that yearly those Indians will get some good from that timber, 

 and under the restrictions of the government to see that the mature 

 timber is cut and put upon the market. It will not have the efifect 

 of cheapening the timber, and that is the objection the public have. 

 The fact is that the principal objection to the scheme of the 

 reservation of timber upon the Leech Lake reservation, which is a 

 large and thrifty body of timber, comes not so much from the lum- 

 bermen as it does from settlers in the immediate vicinity who would 

 profit by the operation of cutting it, and from the settlers on the 

 prairies in the west who think that any such act would have a ten- 

 dency to increase the price of lumber, and the selfish objection from 

 the tradesmen who sell goods to those who would market this tim- 

 ber. Up to within a recent period the impression was that the sale 

 would not be authorized this time. That is where their work has 

 come in. What has changed the idea of the Secretary of the In- 

 terior I don't know. I do not think that pressure, whatever it is, is 

 a legitimate pressure. It is certainly not one that the people of the 



