What the Constitutional Amendment 

 Means t& the School Fund 



" ' ,By fc 'G,jiexrrey. Director, College of Forestry. 



Y Y j E have all heard the explanation of the amendment 

 Y\/ for the disposition of our school lands. I wonder if 

 we realize the obligation that is upon us to seriously 

 consider this matter and act upon it with our very best judg- 

 ment. Do we realize that we are the trustees of a very great 

 estate? Morally the trustees of the whole state and also 

 legally trustees for our school fund. 



That puts upon us a heavy responsibility, and a responsi- 

 bility that we are very apt to shirk. It is a very easy thing 

 to get away from a duty of this kind and pass it on back to 

 the shoulders of our ancestors who made the original law. 



We have a right to refer the matter to them with a good 

 deal of confidence, because we know that they did take the 

 time and did give the thought to it that the thing desired. 

 They did not have anyone else on whom they could put the 

 responsibility. It was up to them to decide and decide 

 wisely what this land law should be, and truly they did 

 plan wisely. They so safeguarded the public land sales that 

 there has been built up in this state a school fund unex- 

 celled in any other state in the Union. 



Those of us today, who have tried to get around some of 

 the laws they have made, know only too well how carefully 

 the work of these old lawmakers was done. Well and wisely, 

 too, for at that time there was nothing for them to do but 

 to sell that land. 



Very little was known of that North country compared with 

 what we know today. They had to form their judgment upon 

 the knowledge they had of such land as they could see in the 

 prairies and the southern end of the state. They naturally 

 took for granted that the land to the north would be the same. 

 Timber was so plentiful that they could not possibly foretell 

 the present scarcity of it. Timber land sold by the acre then 

 as though the timber were not there, and no one could have 

 any conception of its present value. No one had yet dreamed 



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