128 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION March 



LIEU LANDS. which the Government may obtain 



control of non-agricultural holdings 



Careful study has been given by withm ^ boundaries of these re . 

 your Commission to the subject seryes Your Commiss i on recom- 

 forest-reserve lieu-land selections. m ^ d& ih& followi flexible plan: 

 These selections have given rise to n thg recommendation of the Sec- 

 great scandal, and have led to the retary of Agri culture, when the public 

 acquisition by speculators of mud .^^ &Q demandS) the Secretary of 

 valuable timber and agricultural land ^ Inter}or shouW be authorized> in 

 and its consolidation into large hold- h}s discretioni to accept the re linquish- 

 ings. Furthermore the money loss to ment t(> thg Un}ted States of &ny tract 

 the Government and the people frorr Qf ^ w}thin & forest reserye CQvered 

 the selection of valuable lands in lieu ^ unperfected bona fide claim law- 

 of worthless areas has been very great. ^ initiated or by a patent, and to 

 There has been no commensurate re- J tQ the Qwner in 1}eu thereof a 

 turn in the way of increased settle- ^ Qf ima priated , vacant> sur . 

 ment and business activity. Pubh. . non-mineral public land in the 

 opinion concerning lieu-land selections ^ Qr Territ and of ap . 

 by railroads in particular has reached imatel al area and value as 

 an acute stage The situation is in 5 eterm}ned by an exam i nat i O n, report, 

 urgent need of a remedy and your ^ c descri tion by public sur . 

 Commission recommends the repeal of f both t tQ be made on the 

 the laws providing for lieu-land sel. ^^ by offidals of the Governme nt. 



tlons - When exchange under these conditions 

 A partial remedy by Executive cannot be effected, lands privately 

 action has already been applied by owned w ithin forest reserves should 

 carefully locating the boundaries _ of be paid for j n cases w here the public 

 new forest reserves, and thus limiting interest requires that such lands should 

 lieu-land selections to comparatively pass ; nto pu bli c ownership. The Sec- 

 insignificant areas. The last annual retary o f the Interior should be author- 

 message to Congress declares definitely ized to take tne nece ssary proceedings 

 that- as ra pidly as the necessary funds are 



The making of forest reserves with- provided, 

 in railroad and wagon-road land-grant 



limits will hereafter, as for the past TIMB * R AND STONE ACT ' 



three years, be so managed as to pre- The recommendations made for the 



vent the issue, under the act of June repeal of the timber and stone act in 



4, 1897, of base for exchange or lieu the previous report are renewed and 



selection (usually called scrip). In all emphasized. Additional facts showing 



cases where forest reserves within the destructive effect of this law have 



areas covered by land grants appear strengthened the belief of your Com- 



to be essential to the prosperity of set- mission that on the whole its operation 



tiers, miners, or others the Govern- i s decidedly harmful. This law has 



ment lands within such proposed forest been made the vehicle for innumerable 



reserves will, as in the recent past, be frauds, and the Government has lost 



withdrawn from sale or entry pending an( i i s still losing yearly vast sums of 



the completion of such negotiations money through the sale of valuable 



with the owners of the land grants as timber lands to speculators, and hence 



will prevent the creation of so-called indirectly to large corporations, at a 



scrip. price far below their actual value. 



There are now lands in private own- From the passage of the act, June 3, 



ership within existing forest reserves, 1878, to June 30, 1904, 55,372 claims 



and similar lands must to a limited for 7,596,078 acres of timber land were 



extent be included in new reserves, patented under its provisions, and on 



Therefore, a method is required by last date 7,644, claims for 1,108,380 



