70 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



Secretary of the Interior; and a separate bill, providing for such 

 regulation was introduced.^* Upon its passage, the original amend- 

 ment became law on March 3, 1891.^^ 



The history of the Free Timber Act has now been traced through 

 the period from 1878 to 1891. It has been pointed out that it was 

 poorly drawn, ambiguous, and most injurious in its effect on the 

 public timber ; that its faults were perceived even before it was passed, 

 and afterward its evil effects repeatedly brought to the attention of 

 Congress; that Congress, instead of eliminating some of the worst 

 features of the law, left it upon the statute books untouched, and 

 passed another free timber law even more vicious in its provisions. In 

 order to understand more clearly the situation in regard to timber 

 lands, however, it will now be necessary to return to the other law 

 of 1878— the Timber and Stone Act. 



THE TIMBER AND STONE ACT: PROVISIONS 



The Timber and Stone Act,^^ applying to the coast states and 

 Nevada, contained several important provisions besides the one per- 

 mitting the sale of timber lands, and these will first be briefly noted. 

 First of all, it provided (section 4) a lighter penalty for cutting 

 timber on the public domain than had been imposed by the act of 

 1831,^^ and abolished the provision of the earlier act which had 

 allowed informers or captors one half of all penalties or forfeitures 

 collected. The penalty now imposed — $100 to $1000 — was altogether 

 inadequate, and did not include the costs of prosecution, which were 

 often greater than the penalty to be collected.^* 



24 Cong. Rec, Sept. 16, 1890, 10094: S. 5129; Cong. Rec, Mar. 3, 1891, 3894. 



25 Stat. 26, 1095. 



26 Stat. 20, 89. 



27 Stat. 4, 472. 



28 Report, Sec. of Int., 1878, XV. Perhaps the influences behind the passage of 

 this law are indicated by the manner in which the various penal provisions are 

 arranged. Thus in section 4 there is a proviso that the "penalties herein provided 

 shall not take effect until 90 days after the passage of this act." In the next section, 

 part of the law of 1831 is repealed, and in the last section a general repeal clause 

 sweeps away "all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this 

 act." This last clause seems to have intended the repeal of the act of 1831, for that 

 act (Revised Statutes, 2461) provided a penalty for trespassing entirely different 

 from the penalty provided by the act of 1878, and so was apparently "inconsistent" 

 with it. The evident intention was to repeal the act of 1831, and leave a period of 



