26o 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



May 



While the above happenings were going 

 on three railroads and half a dozen big 

 sawmills were cutting 200,000,000 feet 

 of timber in a neighboring reserve with- 

 out so much as consulting the author- 

 ities about it. What government ! 



The sheepmen are trying a new kind 

 of war that is likely to send the re- 

 serves up in legal smoke. They have 

 obtained a decision from a federal judge 

 that the reserves are unconstitutional. 

 They are surely inconsistent with the 

 Magna Charta of Anglo-Saxon liberty. 



The reserves are fast changing from 

 a fad to a first-class national humbug. 

 The laws have been amended until they 

 do not even protect the timber. As 

 this statement may appear incredible I 

 will quote from the Secretary of the In- 

 terior's last annual report : " While for 

 the open public lands there is no pro- 

 vision of law which enables the depart- 

 ment to sell timber, such provision is 

 made for the forest reserves;" and a 

 little further on he says reserve timber 

 ' ' is sold to anybody. ' ' The forest re- 

 serve circular of March 21, 1898, page 

 1 1 , says : ' In order to meet the neces- 

 sities of persons, firms, companies, or 

 corporations, whose business requires a 

 large and continuous supply of timber, 

 it is hereby provided that where the 

 annual consumption exceeds 1,000,000 

 feet of timber, board measure, applica- 

 tion for the succeeding year's supply 

 may be made in time to permit the ap- 

 praisement and sale of the timber de- 

 sired six months in advance of its actual 

 need." The corporations cannot get 

 timber from the unreserved public lands 

 at any price '. Where is the protection ? 



From fire? No doubt the reserve 

 officials send in good fire reports. They 

 want to hold their positions ; but the 

 newspapers give different reports. It 

 has been customary for the people in 

 and'near the timber to watch for smoke 

 and extinguish the fires, but if their 

 timber is taken away from them and 

 they are compelled to court the officials 

 in charge before they can get it, the 

 latter will have a lonesome time fight- 

 ing fire. Two years ago I got all the 

 men needed to fight a big fire. They 

 came with their own provisions and 

 camping outfits, and never asked a cent 



for their trouble. Last year a reserve 

 supervisor could not get men to fight 

 his fire, and the state's fire-fighter is 

 now asking for authority to impress 

 men into his service. Popular govern- 

 ment is a success in the West. All 

 other kinds are failures. A hundred 

 cavalrymen are trying to enforce the 

 laws in the Yellowstone Reserve, but a 

 hundred more are asked for, and all 

 the standing armies of Europe cannot 

 enforce the laws in all the forest re- 

 serves. Imperialism is too unpopular. 



Why do the common people object 

 to reserves ? It is a question between 

 kinds of government popular govern- 

 ment and monarchical government. 

 Under the former the people are su- 

 preme ; under the latter they have no 

 rights until they are granted them by 

 the supreme ruler. Outside reserves, 

 the common people legally help them- 

 selves to the timber ; inside, they must 

 first ask permission from some repre- 

 sentative of the supreme ruler, the 

 Honorable Secretary of the Interior. 

 Talk about imperialism ! 



But should the people be allowed so 

 much liberty? It is wise that they 

 should be. Timber is one of the vital 

 necessities of life for fuel, for build- 

 ings. The East has allowed all its coal 

 to come under private ownership, and 

 with a country full of coal they are hav- 

 ing a famine. Would it be wise to put 

 all our timber in charge of one man ? 

 Even the common law protects the 

 people's right to free timber. In Colo- 

 rado last year a gardener dug a tree 

 from one man's yard and planted it in 

 another's as a gift. In the absence of 

 any statute, common law was applied, 

 and it was found that there was no 

 theft, no trespass, and not even mali- 

 cious mischief. 



What then becomes of the great cry 

 of ' ' stealing government timber ? ' ' In 

 a monarchy it might be stealing in 

 some very tyrannical monarchy and 

 has been punished by death, but in 

 America it has always been our right 

 even as we have a right to the land, to 

 the rain that falls, and to the air we 

 breathe. There is an old national stat- 

 ute making it a trespass, but other laws 

 have been passed restoring the right to 



