practical result of this legislation, at least so far as timber 

 lands are concerned, has been a high degree of concentration 

 of ownership. The report shows that the great land grants 

 have directly resulted in enormous single holdings, while 

 other great tracts of standing timber, transferred from the 

 public domain in small parcels to private interests, and usually 

 with no important return to the public treasury, have been 

 gathered into large holdings by timber speculators. Concen- 

 tration in the ownership of this timber, moreover, tends con- 

 stantly to increase. 



The national-forest policy inaugurated in the '90s, and now 

 in successful operation, marked a fundamental change in the 

 ideas which had formerly prevailed as to the handling of pub- 

 lic timberlands. The basic principle of this policy is the re- 

 tention of the fee title to the land and the sale from time to 

 time of the timber only, with a view to the wisest use of the 

 supply and to its proper conservation. By this policy the gov- 

 ernment is able to secure for the public the full market value 

 of this timber at the time of cutting, and at the same time to 

 retain the land itself for reforestation or for such other use 

 or disposition as may later seem advisable. 



"Attempts, however, are still made to secure the transfer 

 of public timber lands to private owners under the same pleas 

 of settlement which in the past often proved wholly specious 

 and insincere. 



Instead of a Public Service, Concentration Has Brought About 



a Public Danger. 



"Much of the timberland still remaining in public owner- 

 ship is adapted only for timber purposes. All that could be 

 properly asked by a bona fide settler is the surface of arable 

 land after the timber has been removed, but too frequently 

 back of the argument made in the name of -the 'settler' is the 

 desire to acquire the timber or other natural resources rather 

 than the soil itself. It seems desirable, therefore, to direct 

 public attention to the fundamental difference between dis- 

 posing of agricultural lands to actual settlers whose industry 

 contributes directly to the material and social upbuilding of 

 the community, and the alienation of virgin timberlands, 

 which do not require, and indeed hardly permit of, improve- 



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