80 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



certain fee being paid for each fraudulent entry. In the redwood 

 district of California, large tracts of immensely valuable timber lands 

 were acquired under this act and under the Homestead Act, the sole 

 improvements consisting of huts or kennels totally unfit for human 

 habitation. ^^ The head of a large lumber company at Duluth, Minne- 

 sota, once stated that he, with his associates, had acquired thousands 

 of acres of pine lands under the Preemption Act by simply filing the 

 names of persons found in the St. Paul and Chicago directories. 

 This man had a standing agreement with the local land officers 

 whereby they were to permit such entries for a consideration of $25 

 each." 



The Commutation Homestead clause was quite as effective an 

 instrument of fraud as the Preemption Law. During the course of some 

 fifty years, a total of over 35,000,000 acres of land was acquired by 

 commutation, the government receiving something over $50,000,000 

 for lands worth several times that much, and the profit going largely 

 to perjured entrymen and their employees. A prominent official in 

 the United States Forest Service once said of the operation of the act : 

 "It has been my experience and observation in ten years of field 

 service that the commutation homestead is almost universally an entry 

 initiated with a full intent never to make the land a home. Actual 

 inspection of hundreds of commuted homesteads shows that not one in 

 a hundred is ever occupied as a home after commutation. They become 

 part of some large timber holding or parcel of a cattle or sheep ranch." 

 In the vicinity of Duluth, Minnesota, it was at one time a common 

 practice for persons desiring to commute to take an ordinary dry- 

 goods box, make it resemble a small house with doors, windows, and a 

 shingle roof. This box would be 14 x 16 inches, or larger, and would be 

 taken by the entryman to his claim. On date of commutation proof, he 

 would appear at the local office, swear that he had upon his claim "a 

 good board house, 14 x 16, with a shingled roof, doors, windows," 

 etc. The proof on its face would appear excellent, and was readily 

 passed by the local officers. Thus, in a variety of ways, the commu- 

 tation clause was used in the fraudulent acquisition of lands, often 

 valuable timber lands. Senator Patterson of Colorado declared in 



51 Donaldson, "Public Domain," 543. 



52 "Lumber Industry," I, 260, 261 : Donaldson, "Public Domain," 682, 1220. 



