MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



father than looking to the weal of the State. 

 As a matter of fact, however, it would prob- 

 ably be found that the report had been read, 

 but being diretced against certain pocket- 

 books, every means, no matter how dishon- 

 orable or dishonest, were considered justifiable 

 in attempting to defeat the proposed better- 

 ments and economies. 



"It may be of interest to know that in the 

 nine years Senator Foster's Gladwin 

 Cunty Record has received $7,755.85 for ad- 

 vertising delinquent tax lands. This income, 

 which was cut to $207.90 in 1905, has been in- 

 ling since that time at the rate of 15 per 

 Jcent per annum, and is again assuming re- 

 able proportions, and as the laws pro- 

 I posed would make further inroads" on this 

 sum, the opposition of the Senator can be 

 easily understod. 



"The Gladwin County Record's average in- 

 from this source for the past nine years 

 I has been $801.76. or equal to a 5 per cent 

 income on a capital of $17,235.20." 



"The principles underlying the plans sug- 

 gested by the Commission of Inquiry for the 

 utilization of the forfeited tax lands is that 

 the State should direct action toward settling 

 only the better class of these lands, such as 

 have real value for farming, keeping in mind 

 the importance of providing a wise and proper 

 balance between forest areas and agricultural 

 areas. The fact that the tax lands, so-called, 

 continue to revert for the non-payment of 

 taxes, periodically, shows conclusively to an 

 unbiased mind that they are suitable only for 

 the purpose of raising trees, and, as the lands 

 are bought for merely nominal sums, the tim- 

 ber removed, and the tax payment stopped, 

 as a means of exploiting the State for the 

 benefit of unscrupulous speculators and certain 

 country newspapers, whose only excuse for 

 existing is to collect the annual stipend for 

 advertising the lands which have become de- 

 linquent for taxes." 



Forest Fire Protection. 



RECORD: "Talk about protecting stripped 

 lands of the north from forest fires! It is a 

 job to compare with putting down the re- 

 bellion." 



MR. SCHMIDT: "This is another evidence 

 of the breadth of their reasoning. Just as 

 long as these helpless, short-sighted ideas are 

 spread among the people, just so long will it 

 be an uphill fight to bring them to a realiza- 



if how compartaively easy it is to keep 



lit of the lands, and in the event of its 

 breaking out, how it can be checked. The 

 forest fires in Michigan of last year, which 



damage that could be measured of $28,- 

 >0 (Report United States Government 

 experts), and at least as much more that 

 cannot be put into figures, gave many instances 

 of the two ways that the fire can be viewed. 

 >ne was where supervisors, fire wardens, 

 citizens and newspapers took a helpless stand, 

 Hid did nothing toward preventing the spread 

 pi the fires, and the other, that taken by pri- 

 timber owners, and notably the forestry 

 ftudents on the Roscommon County forest 

 , e, who by intelligent back firing not only 



prevented the spread of the fires, but forced 

 it to burn itself out within a limited area. 

 If it never did anything else, the school would 

 justify its existence by the example it set in 

 this instance. 



i "When the people in the timber sections of 

 the State realize, as they should now after 

 last year's bitter experience, the danger of 

 carelessness in the starting of small fires, 

 and of the importance of taking immediate 

 steps toward stamping out an insignificant 

 blaze in the woods, they will take the same 

 position toward the careless stroller in the 

 woods or incendiary that the people of any 

 village or city would take toward any one 

 who was to walk through the town waving 



.1* fire brand about him. And with the citizen- 

 lip of the State alive to the situation, the 

 handling of the fire problem becomes no more 



imposing than the same question is in Grand 

 Rapids or Lansing. 



"In Europe large forest fires have not oc- 

 curred for many years!" 



Mr. Schmidt Sums Up. 



Summing up the matter Mr. Schmidt says 

 further: 



"The object of the Maxey bill is to tem- 

 porarily withdraw the lands from sale in the 

 Land Commissioner's Office, and those that 

 have been delinquent for taxes for more than 

 five years and are held in the Auditor Gen- 

 eral's Office (the present law distinctly says 

 that the lands shall be taken out of the Aud- 

 itor General's Office at the expiration of 

 five years, and be transferred to the Land 

 Commissioner's Office). That this has not 

 been done is a matter of common knowledge, 

 some of the lands having been advertised for 

 20 to 25 years for delinquent taxes. The actual 

 operation can best be shown by an example: 

 In Schoolcraft County certain lands had been 

 delinquent for 17 years, and advertised (five 

 years should have ended the expense), and 

 were then turned over to the Land Commis- 

 sioner. 



"The law then says that they shall be held 

 in his office for homestead application for 

 three years, and before being placed' on the 

 market, be examined and appraised as to their 

 value. The actual occurrence was that these 

 lands were sold within one year, to the Grim- 

 mer Land Co., after being transferred to the 

 Land Commissioner's Office. So there were 

 at least two distinct violations of already 

 existing laws. 



"The Commission of Inquiry examined 

 21,455 acres of land, and has the affidavits of 

 competent land lookers that these 21,455 

 acres were worth $250,526. They had been 

 sold for $31,777, showing a net loss to the 

 State of $218,749, or $10.20 per acre. On 

 March 3, 1909, the Land Commissioner re- 

 ported that he had sold for the period from 

 1902 to 1908, 1,022,424 acres, so that the loss 

 on these lands was at least $10,428,724.80. 



"The object of the Morrice bill, which has 

 been introduced, is to fix a minimum price of 

 $5 per acre, plus the value of the timber, on 

 the lands; to reserve such contiguous parcels 

 as have come under the ownership of the 

 State, for forest reserves; to reserve to the 

 State the ownership of any mineral, etc., 

 deposits that may be found on such of the 

 State lands as may be sold; and to provide 

 for the sale of such State lands as may seem 

 unsuited for State forest reserves, and for 

 the controlling and regulating of stream flow. 

 It also reserves to the State all flowage rights 

 in the lands. There will also be introduced, 

 A Public Domains Commission Bill, creating 

 a commission which shall have the control of 

 the State's business in connection with the 

 public domain, forests, game and fish, and 

 with the furnishing of protection from forest 

 fire and trespass. Then there should be in- 

 troduced a forest fire law, providing an ade- 

 uate fire patrol, and fixing penalties for the 

 careless setting of fires, etc., in the woods. 

 The necessity of this must be evident to any 

 one familiar with the occurances of the last 

 fall. On outline for this is also given in the 

 Commission of Inquiry, Report, page 140." 



subject. It uncovered an amazing and shame- 

 ful condition in the state's management of its 

 public lands, portraying in a perfectly clear 

 manner methods used by land speculators to 

 defraud the state, and to denude the public 

 lands of valuable standing timber, at an im- 

 mense profit to themselves and a correspond- 

 ing loss to the state and the people at large. 



The federal experts coincide entirely with 

 the conclusions reached by the state commis- 

 sion, both as to the conditions existing and 

 the remedy therefore. They add to the state 

 commisisoner's report a highly important pro- 

 vision for a fire patrol covering the counties 

 of the northern portion of the state, to be 

 maintained at state expense. Without such 

 protection, well-organized and effective, all ef- 

 forts to reforest waste areas and to protect 

 the standing timber now in existence will be 

 futile. The inefficiency and non-effectiveness 

 of the present system of township fire wardens 

 has been completely demonstrated. To leave 

 the protection of the forests in such hands is 

 but to invite a repetition of the terribly expen- 

 sive disaster of 1908, which cost the state 

 about 50 human lives and over $28,000,000. 



The proposal that the counties be each made 

 responsible for private losses sustained 

 through forest fires is also worthy of consid- 

 eration. We can think of no plan which 

 would more effectually make the counties take 

 a serious view of the question of fire protec- 

 tion than this. A further recommendation 

 that should receive the prompt approval of the 

 legislature is, that all railroads should be re- 

 quired to install spark arresters on their loco- 

 motives, and during the dangerous, dry sea- 

 sons, patrol their right of way. 



The legislature is not without the most co_m- 

 plete information for its guidance in enacting 

 forestry laws. It has in addition the awful 

 lesson of last summer to spur it on. To sup- 

 port its efforts it has a united and intelligent 

 public sentiment. The legislature of 1909 will 

 be seriously derelict in its duty if it adjourns 

 without passing a good forestry law. Sault 

 Ste. Marie News. 



A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. 



Governor Warner has signed the bill, pass- 

 ed by the legislature, authorizing the boards 

 of supervisors to employ convicted prisoners 

 in county jails at building and repairing roads. 

 The law is a good one, and the opportunity it 

 affords should be seized upon by the local 

 board, to put at productive work, the inmates 

 of the county jail, whenever their terms are of 

 sufficient duration to make their work worth 

 while. We can imagine no more effective cure 

 for the habitual minor offender, against the 

 law than to put him at work on the public 

 highways. Such a policy applied to county 

 prisoners would make any county decidedly 

 unpopular with the numerous gentlemen of 

 the road, who annually appear in every section 

 during the summer months. 



It would also provide a working force which 

 if intelligently directed would do much to 

 keep the county road system in good condi- 

 tion. If the plan worked out well, it might 

 even be desirable to discontinue the present 

 arrangement with the Detroit house of correc- 

 tion and keep local prisoners at work at home. 



FORESTRY LEGISLATION. 



The legislature is now getting down to ser- 

 ious consideration of a bill designed to protect 

 the forests of the state from devastation by 

 fire and to conserve the timber wealth in a 

 comprehensive and adequate manner. For its 

 information in drafting such a bill it has two 

 exceptionally good reports. One from the 

 special commission of inquiry, appointed by 

 the governor two years ago. and the other 

 from two experts of the federal forestry serv- 

 ice who made a careful investigation of condi- 

 tions in Michigan. 



The report of the special commission of in- 

 quiry was exhaustive in its treatment of the 



ARBOR DAY IN MICHIGAN. 



Governor Warner, of Michigan, in his proc- 

 lamation designating April 30 as Arbor Day. 

 says: 



Every year emphasizes the need of such a 

 day and its observance should be statewide. 

 The day should leave its influence and impress 

 upon the minds of those upon whom the bur- 

 dens of the future will devolve, and, to this 

 end. the exercises in the schools should be of 

 a nature that will bring out and develop a love 

 for the forest, field and flower. 



It should be a day when attention is called 

 to what a generous Providence has done for 

 our state. A soil and climate adapted for all 



