ANTI-CONSERVATION ACTIVITY 183 



I 



There were several large private landholders in this reserve: the 

 Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Company, the owner of 507,000 acres ; 

 the Aztec Land and Cattle Company, with 132,000 acres; the Perrin 

 brothers, with 134,000 acres; William F. Baker, owner of 79,000 

 acres; the Saginaw and Manistee Lumber Company, with 40,000 

 acres ; and others with smaller amounts. The Secretary of the Interior 

 had already entered into contracts for the exchange of a large amount 

 of timber land when the Forest Lieu Act was repealed ; but a clause 

 in the repealing act provided that "the validity of contracts entered 

 into by the Secretary of the Interior" prior to the passage of the act 

 should not be impaired. 



It now appears that the exchanges made in connection with these 

 reserves were nothing that the government could be very proud of. 

 Undoubtedly private owners generally got the best end of these con- 

 tracts, and some of them even violated certain terms of their agree- 

 ment; but it was hardly to be expected that the government should 

 bargain with private parties and not get cheated more or less. 



At any rate, there is no evidence to justify imputations often made, 

 that Secretary Hitchcock was inspired by any improper motives in 

 his conduct of the matter, or even that he was' unduly careless. The 

 reserve had been established on the petitions of the legislature of 

 Arizona, the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, the Arizona Water Com- 

 pany, and of private citizens of the state, on the theory that it would 

 conserve the water flow for extensive irrigation systems below. The 

 checkerboard system of reserves had been adopted in a sincere effort 

 to avoid the evils of lieu selections, and when that form of reserve 

 proved impractical, the secretary tried to get it into better shape. 

 There is evidence that Secretary Hitchcock used reasonable care in 

 the matter. The difficulty was with the Forest Lieu Act itself.^^ 



LIEU SELECTION AND THE MOUNT RANIER NATIONAL PARK 



The Northern Pacific Railroad was given lieu selection privileges, 



not only under the general Forest Lieu Act of 1897, but also under 



a special provision in the act providing for the creation of the Mount 



Ranier National Park in 1899. The creation of this park has been the 



61 Report, Sec. of Int., 1905, 327: H. Doc. 613; 59 Cong. 1 sess,: S. Doc. 612; 

 61 Cong. 2 sess.: Cong. Bee, Mar. 4, 1905, 4035; Mar. 14, 1914, 4866, 4867; Jan. 22, 

 1915, 2150: "Land Decisions," 33, 558. 



