I 



ANTI-CONSERVATION ACTIVITY 185 



once stated in Congress that the Northern Pacific relinquished its 

 450,000 acres within three days after the act creating the park was 

 signed. 



The establishment of this park had been recommended by a com- 

 mittee of the National Academy of Sciences, and there is no doubt 

 that many people in Washington wanted the park for perfectly good 

 reasons. Also, at the time Senator Wilson introduced his measure, the 

 general Forest Lieu Act had not been in force long enough so that the 

 evil results of lieu selections were generally recognized. Nevertheless, 

 the outrageously generous provisions of the act suggest a possibility 

 that its provisions were drawn under the careful supervision of friends 

 or agents of the Northern Pacific. '^^ 



It can now be easily understood how the Forest Lieu Act occa- 

 sioned much hostility in the West, not only toward the land grant 

 railroads, which profited most under the act, but also toward the 

 forest reserves, which made lieu selections possible. The creation of 

 more reserves meant more lieu selections for the railroads, and this 

 meant the appropriation of good timber lands outside the reserves. 

 In this way, the creation of new forest reserves, while it favored the 

 protection of timber within the boundaries established, assisted in the 

 destruction of timber outside. The West had a just grievance; al- 

 though it is to be remembered that it was a western man. Senator 

 Pettigrew, who was partly responsible for the Forest Lieu Act, and 

 another western man. Senator Wilson, who was responsible for the 

 gross abuses arising out of the creation of the Mount Ranier Park.'' 



THE OREGON TIMBER LAND FRAUDS 



Any discussion of the Forest Lieu Act would be incomplete with- 

 , out some account of the Oregon timber land frauds in the early years 

 ft the twentieth century — the most extensive and notorious frauds 

 the recent history of the public lands. These frauds were perpe- 

 trated under various public land laws, but perhaps none of the laws 

 ;were used so much as the Forest Lieu Act. 



^2 Stat. 30, 993: "Lumber Industry," I, 238, 239: Puter and Stevens, "Looters 

 of the Public Domain," Ch. XXIV: Cong. Bee, Mar. 14, 1914, 4865; Jan. 22, 1915, 

 2146-2148: H. R. 4058; 54 Cong. 1 sess.: S. 349; 55 Cong. 1 sess.: S. 2552; 55 Cong. 

 2 sess.: "Land Decisions," 33, 634; 34, 88; 37, 70. 



53 Proceedings, Society of Am. Foresters, Nov., 1905, 70. 



