MICHIGAN 



ROADS 



FORMS 



DETROIT, MICH., APRIL, 1909. 



How the Truth Regarding Proposed Forestry Leg- 

 islation in Michigan Is Distorted 



Carl E. Schmidt, of the Commission of Inquiry, Refutes Many False Statements 



MICHIGAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



The Michigan Forestry Association was organized in Grand Rapids August 30, 1905, having for its object the promotion of a ra- 

 tional system of forestry in Michigan. The society is managed by the following roster of officers: President, John H. Bissell, of Detroit; 

 e-President, Morrice Quinn, Saginaw; Secretary, Henry G. Stevens, Detroit; Treasurer, W. B. Mershon, Saginaw, W. S. Board of 

 Directors S. M. Lemon, Grand Rapids; H. N. Loud, Au Sable; Thos. B. Wyman, Munising; E. C. Nichols, Battle Creek; R. Hanson, Gray- 

 | ling; Geo. N. Brady, Detroit. 



nis special attention. This provides that any 

 person claiming under or by virtue of the orig- 

 inal or record title may, upon paying in full 

 the amount of all delinquent taxes, etc., receive 

 from the auditor-general a receipt therefor, 

 which shall be a discharge and acquittance of 

 the lands from the lien of taxes and a release 

 of all right, title or interest vested in the state 

 by virtue of tax proceedings, but shall not op- 

 erate to transfer any title based on such tax 

 proceedings. 



"In an interview Senator Bolt says: 'This 

 proviso simply means that the original owner 

 shall be privileged to select from these lands 

 and descriptions that are valuable owing to 

 flowage purposes, second-growth timber, fer- 

 tile soil, etc., and let the poor, arid and worth- 

 .less lands not fit for reforestation, nor in fact 

 anything else, still remain as abandoned lands 

 in the hands of the state, and gives him, or the 

 man to whom he may assign such original or 

 record title, three years in which to make his 

 pick of the valuable portions of such land. 

 The bill does not aim to withdraw state tax 

 lands temporarily from sale absolutely in the 

 interest of all the people, but in the interest of 

 original owners and their assignees as against 

 the interest of the general public.' " 



MR. SCHMIDT. "The 'proviso clause,' so- 

 called, simply gives the owner of the original 

 title the prviilege to pay his back taxes, if not 

 due for more than the legal period of five 

 years, and is intended to keep the lands in 

 their present condition until the legislature 

 has had time to consider the other bills rec- 

 ommended by the Commission of Inquiry. 

 The Maxey bill, providing for the temporary 

 withdrawal of tax homestead, and state tax 

 lands, was made necessary because both the 

 land commissioner and the auditor-general 

 continued selling and disposing of the lands, 

 and the conditions set forth in the report were 

 as a consequence becoming worse from day to 

 day. The legislature had adopted resolutions 

 requesting these officials to refrain from dis- 

 posing of the lands, but they insisted the laws 

 compelled them to sell them on application, 

 and it was therefore necessary to enact this 

 into a law." 



RECORD. "Senator Bolt has a table of 

 figures showing the gain to the state that has 

 come under the present system." 



MR. SCHMIDT. "Senator Bolt will have 

 an interesting time proving that the state 

 made a gain in disposing of approximately a 

 million acres of land for $1.000,000, when these 

 lands were worth at least $10,000,000." 



I-'-. Schmidt, a member of the Comtnis- 

 "f Inquiry which made an exhaustive in- 

 vestigation of Michigan's present land laws 

 .and their administration, takes issue with the 

 uladwin County Record (a newspaper owned 

 by State Senator Foster, one of the most rabid 

 opponents of all measures tending to improve 

 conditions in the state's handling of delinquent 

 tax lands, and tax homestead lands). An ar- 

 ticle published in that paper on March IS. Mr. 

 Schmidt declares, is made up of such gross 

 and malicious misstatements on the subject 

 that it is necessary to advise the public of the 

 truth of the matter. The Record's statements 

 and Mr. Schmidt's refutations of them follow: 



A Sample of Misrepresentation. 



THE RECORD. "The Maxey bill, so- 

 called, temporarily withdrawing from sale or 

 'homestead entry state tax lands and state 

 homestead lands, which passed the house re- 

 cently, has not met a favorable reception in 

 the senate, and many representatives who 

 voted for the bill have changed their views in 

 ! to it, having become suspicious that it 

 ne of the 'jokers' which have been 

 ng through of late. There is a strong 

 novement in the house to recall the bill. It 

 las developed that a big corporation in the 

 ipper peninsula, owning many millions of 

 acres, is behind the measure as well as the for- 

 bill in the house. Those interested in 

 :hese measures are in constant consultation 

 with agents of this corporation, which gives 

 rise to grave suspicion. To induce the sena- 

 tors to support the bill, it has leaked out that 

 the senators who do not support it will be op- 

 posed for re-election, the presumption being 

 that they will meet the opposition of powerful 

 interests behind the bill. These interests, it is 

 said, have in view a scheme to secure exemp- 

 tion from taxes to large tracts of land which 

 they desire to set apart for private forestry 

 purposes." 



MR. SCHMIDT. "The statement that a 

 big corporation is behind the measure is abso- 

 ^,'tely false. The bill was introduced at the 

 uggestion of the Commission of Inquiry, ap- 

 fcointed by the Governor according to an act 

 lassed by the legislature of 1907, which had 

 lor its object the investigation of the present 



Land Laws and their administration, and to 

 report a comprehensive plan for the protec- 

 tion, improvement, utilization and settlement 

 of the delinquent state tax lands, and for the 

 better and more economical administration of 

 the affairs and business of the state connected 

 therewith. 



"The commission was composed of repre- 

 sentative men. selected from the state at large, 

 who 'had no axes to grind,' and who gave their 

 time and best thought to the matter in more 

 than a year's work, and who served the state 

 without pay. The best authorities in the par- 

 ticular problems involved were consulted, their 

 suggestions carefully weighed, and such as 

 fitted the conditions embodied in the recom- 

 mendations of the commission. As a result, 

 their report and recommendations have elic- 

 ited the unstinted praise of every decent mem- 

 ber of our commonwealth, and pronounced 

 'ideal' by some of the most eminent authorities 

 on the subject, one of them Gifford Pinchot, 

 United States forester. It is from these ranks 

 that the bills recommended draw their sup- 

 port, the strong opposition coming from the 

 office-holders who see their soft berths in dan- 

 ger, the 'bosses' who will have less pap at 

 their command if the num'ber of offices is re- 

 duced, and the class of country newspapers, 

 which, like the Gladwin County Record, think 

 more of the income of a few hundred dollars 

 per year they receive for advertising the delin- 

 quent tax lands, than they do for the welfare 

 of the state, although they may know that a 

 large part of this sum is illegal." 



Senator Bolt Disposed of. 



RECORD. "Senator Bolt is firm in his op- 

 position to the measure, and declares it to be 

 a 'land shark' bill from any standpoint. He 

 declares that it is aimed against rather than in 

 favor of the best interests of the state. T in- 

 tend to oppose the bill to the limit in the sen- 

 ate,' says Senator Bolt, and he is preparing 

 some interesting tables and figures in support 

 of his contention that the measure should not 

 pass." 



MR. SCHMIDT. "The exposure of the 

 methods of the 'land sharks (see report, pages 

 100 to 130) will effectually answer the insinua- 

 tion that the bill is introduced in their interest. 

 A reading of this portion of the report would 

 be well for Senator Bolt." 



RECORD. "The proviso clause. will receive 



Misrepresents the Maxey Bill. 



RECORD. "The Maxey bill seems to be 

 based on the mistaken notion that the_object 

 of the tax laws is speculative, and not for the 



