230 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



During the next two years, Quarles, and also Hansbrough of North 

 Dakota, made efforts to secure a law providing for the sale of timber 

 without the land, but without success. ^^ This would of course have 

 curtailed somewhat the operation of the Timber and Stone Act, 

 although it would not have been equivalent to a repeal of the act. One 

 bill introduced by Quarles was favorably reported by the Committee 

 on Public Lands,^^ and, the western men being pacified by an amend- 

 ment turning the proceeds of timber sales into the reclamation fund, 

 this bill passed the Senate without opposition. It was, however, never 

 considered in the House.^^ 



The speeches which indicate most clearly the attitude of the Senate 

 toward the Timber and Stone Act, were made in the consideration of 

 an omnibus public land bill, after the above measure of Quarles had 

 already passed the upper house. In 1904, Gibson of Montana intro- 

 duced a bill to repeal several public land laws, including the Timber 

 and Stone Act, and the Timber and Stone section was discussed at 

 considerable length.^* Gibson himself, although a western man, spoke 

 in no uncertain terms of the great evils which had arisen under the 

 act.^^ "Although this act has been in force twenty-five years," he said, 

 "during which time the attention of Congress has been repeatedly 

 called in the most urgent manner to the unlawful disposition of the pub- 

 lic timber lands made possible by it, the act still stands on the statute 

 book, a monument to the wastefulness and the injustice of our national 

 land policy." Hansbrough agreed with Gibson as to the need of repeal, 

 but he feared that, unless another law were passed providing for the 

 sale of timber, the repeal of the Timber and Stone Act would simply 

 be playing into the hands of big timber owners, who would find their 

 own holdings advanced in value by the limitation of the supply of 

 timber available for the market. Hansbrough even asserted that an 



31 S. 370, S. 932; 58 Cong. 1 sess.: S. 4916, S. 5054; 58 Cong. 2 sess. 



32 S. Report 1535 ; 58 Cong. 2 sess. 



33 Conff. Rec, Mar. 17, 1904, 3376. It has been stated that Thomas B. Walker 

 appeared before the House Committee on Public Lands, and that as a result of his 

 influence only two members of the committee voted for the bill. Walker, it will be 

 remembered, used the Timber and Stone Act a great deal in the acquisition of 

 lands, and no doubt was opposed to any repeal of the law or any provision which 

 would interfere with its use. {Proceedings, Am. Forestry Congress, Jan. 1905, 339.) 



34 S. 5168; 58 Cong. 2 sess. 



35 Cong. Rec, Mar. 24, 1904, 3606. 



