THE PERIOD OF BEGINNINGS 67 



discourage timber stealing, those wanting timber sought other means 

 of acquiring it. The result was the passage of the Free Timber Act 

 and the Timber and Stone Act. The former provided free timber for 

 settlers, and the latter provided for sale of the lands. 



As long as the law against timber cutting was not enforced, there 

 had been no need for a free timber law, but when the policy of law 

 enforcement was inaugurated, the response of the West was fairly 

 prompt. As early as 1869, Representative Johnson of California had 

 introduced a bill for the relief of persons taking timber from the pub- 

 lic lands,®'' but the bill made no headway, and Congress gave little 

 evidence of interest in the matter for several years. In 1876 and in 

 1878, Chaffee of Colorado introduced bills into the Senate: "Author- 

 izing citizens of Colorado, Nevada and the Territories to fell and 

 remove timber on the public domain for mining and domestic pur- 

 poses" ;®*' and in the latter year, by the help of Senator Sargent of 

 California, got one of his measures through the Senate without diffi- 

 culty. In the House, Patterson of Colorado, Page of California, and 

 Maginnis of Montana pushed the bill through, although not until 

 Fort of Illinois compelled them to agree to an amendment giving the 

 Secretary of the Interior control over the licenses to cut timber. As 

 thus amended, Chaffee's bill passed with very little opposition, and 

 became a law on June 3, 1878."^ Some time before Chaffee's bill was 

 signed, Representative Wren of Nevada introduced a similar bill into 

 the House, but it received no attention.®^ 



Before this bill reached the House, however, a provision had been 

 enacted as a rider to a special appropriation bill, which accomplished, 

 in the territories of the United States, practically the same thing, for 

 one year. To the clause appropriating $7000 for investigating land 

 entries, a proviso was attached, that where timber lands were not sur- 

 veyed and offered for public sale, none of the money appropriated 

 should be used to collect a charge for timber cut for the use of actual 

 settler s.^® Much of the land had not been surveyed, and very little in 

 the West had been offered for sale, so that the appropriation made for 



S5 H. R. 563; 41 Cong. 2 sess.; Cong. Globe, p. 98. 

 96 S. 1078; 44 Cong. 2 sess.: S. 20; 45 Cong. 1 sess. 

 9T Cong. Rec, May 9, 18T8, 3328: Stat. 20, 88. 

 ^sCong. Rec, Mar. 11, 1878, 1646. 

 99 Stat. 20, 46. 



