198 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



proper construction of the Forest Lieu Act entitled only settlers to 

 exchange their lands. It is true that this construction might have been 

 given, and as a matter of fact was given by the Commissioner of the 

 Land Office, previous to the administration of Hitchcock; but there 

 was some logic in Hitchcock's interpretation. The act gave lieu selec- 

 tion privileges to any "settler or owner of a tract" within a forest 

 reserve, and certainly the term "owner" might be construed to include 

 a railroad owner; indeed, that seems the most obvious construction. 

 Had Congress, in passing the act, wished its provisions to apply only 

 to settlers, it seems that it would have used the term "settler," and let 

 it go at that, without adding the further alternative, "or owner of 

 a tract." In the second place, Fulton and Carter intimated that 

 Hitchcock was the only secretary who had included railroad lands 

 within forest reserve limits.*^ Carter said that the policy of Secretary 

 Bliss, preceding Hitchcock, had been to draw the boundaries of the 

 reserves in such fashion as to leave out the odd numbered sections — 

 the railroad lands. As a matter of fact, the proclamation of August 

 17, 1898, establishing the San Francisco Mountains Forest Reserve,®^ 

 was the only one issued during the incumbency of Bliss in which that 

 particular scheme had been used, and even there it had not worked 

 successfully. The abuses under the Forest Lieu Act had arisen before 

 Hitchcock became secretary.** 



The defense of the forest reserves was taken up by men from all 

 sections of the country. Senator Dolliver of Iowa thought the criti- 

 cism directed against the Forest Service was "especially to be de- 

 plored." "Here in the Senate and in the other House of Congress," 

 he said, "we find a petulant stream of criticism directed at the in- 

 tegrity of his [Hitchcock's] motives, and the wisdom with which he 

 has undertaken to administer the great trust which has reposed upon 

 him during the last eight years. ... I undertake to say that he has 

 by his public service piled up a mountainous presumption of plain 

 honesty which is not to be overcome by speeches upon the floor of 

 either house of Congress."*^ Senator Beveridge of Indiana, always a 



82 Cong. Rec, Feb. 18, 1907, 3184, 3185. 



83 Stat. 30, 1781: H. Doc. 613; 59 Cong. 1 sess. 



84 Report, Land Office, 1898, 89. 



stiCong. Rec, Feb. 18, 1907, 3183-3195; Feb. 19, 3281-3297; Feb. 21, 3521-3542. 



