THE FOREST RESERVES 137 



^Bf administrative law restrains him and compels him, subordinate his 

 private interests to the larger interests of the whole people." 



The adoption of Pettigrew's amendment in the Senate by a vote of 

 14 to 32 shows how strong was the sentiment in its favor.^^ The fact 

 that many western men should be energetically pushing a measure 

 which was later to be recognized as one of the great landmarks in the 



■conservation movement, paradoxical as it seems at first blush, is not 

 iifiicult to explain. A great many forest reserves had been established 

 ■1 the West, and these lands were virtually locked up against all use 

 Ir development; and at the same time they were just as completely 

 piprotected from fire and trespass as unreserved lands. Pettigrew's 

 amendment, opening these lands to mining, and providing for the use 

 and development, as well as the protection, of the timber, naturally 

 appealed to the men from the states involved ; while the lieu selection 

 provision, in its very generous treatment of settlers, presented a 

 strong argument for western support. 



In the House, several western men took up with energy the cause 

 which Pettigrew had espoused in the Senate. Their activity took the 

 form in the main of a bitter denunciation of Cleveland's proclamation 

 of February 22. Hartman of Montana called it "a parting shot of 

 the worst enemy that the American people have ever had." Knowles of 

 South Dakota declared that the issue of this "villainous order" meant 

 that 15,000 people in his state "must vacate their homes and become 

 paupers" ; and he was particularly indignant because President 

 Cleveland had consulted so little the wishes of the western politicians. 

 "We know the 'rotten boroughs of the West,' as the New York World 

 calls us, have little influence with this adn^inistration," he said. "Our 

 Representatives warm their heels in the anterooms not only of the 

 President, but those of the heads of Departments, while the Represen- 

 tatives and Senators from the East file past them and have the quick 

 ear of every branch of the Government." Castle of California declared 

 that "there was never exhibited by any government a more shameless, 

 a more brutal object lesson of might making right" than in the treat- 

 ment of certain "peaceable citizens of California"; and Bailey of 

 Texas declared he would never "vote to make any adjustment which 

 proposes in a foolish and sentimental regard for forests to ignore and 



39 Cong. Rec, May 6, 1897, 924. 



