I 



THE PERIOD OF BEGINNINGS 41 



Even if there had been an abundance of funds for the prosecution 

 of trespassers, little could have been accomplished, because of the diffi- 

 culty of securing, in the forest regions, any sentiment favorable to 

 timber protection. Stealing timber was hardly regarded as a serious 

 offense. Thus, when a certain timber owner in Wisconsin tried to get 

 a lawyer to prosecute a trespasser for stealing some choice timber 

 from his own private land, he received the suggestive answer: "Now, 

 don't try that. All of those fellows have had 'some of them hams,' and 

 you can't get a jury in all that country that will bring you in a ver- 

 dict of guilty, no matter how great and strong the evidence."^" 



Complaints from the timbermen would, however, indicate that the 

 efforts of the government were not entirely ineffective, at least in the 

 region of the Lake states. Thus, as early as 1852, Representative 

 Eastman of Wisconsin spoke bitterly of the manner in which "the 

 whole power of the country, in the shape of the United States mar- 

 shals, and a whole posse of deputies and timber agents appointed by 

 the President without the least authority of law," had been "let loose 

 upon this devoted class of our citizens" (the timbermen). "They have 

 been harassed almost beyond endurance with pretended seizures and 

 suits, prosecutions and indictments," he said, "until they have been 

 driven almost to the desperation of an open revolt against their perse- 

 cutors." Representative Sibley of Minnesota also complained of the 

 "unrelenting severity" with which timbermen were pursued; although 

 he admitted that the timber operators in the states farther west were 

 little molested.^^ 



Of course, the $5000 appropriated for timber protection in 1872 

 was a mere bagatelle, wholly inadequate to the needs of the situation, 

 but it was a beginning, and each year following, a like amount was 

 appropriated, until 1878, when it was raised to $25,000.'^ While the 

 appropriation of 1872, and likewise that of 1873 and 1874, was made 

 in connection with the navy, its use was not restricted to the naval 

 reserves ; and that there was in Congress some purpose to protect 

 timber in general, is shown by several extra appropriations made in 



50 "Warren, "The Pioneer Woodsman as he is Related to Lumbering in the 

 Northwest," 58. 



51 Cong. Globe, 32 Cong. 1 sess., Appendix, 851, 486. 



52 Stat. 20, 229. 



