THE UNRESERVED TIMBER LAND 231 



organization of the lumber interests, with headquarters in Washing- 

 ton, was working hard for the repeal of the law.^® Dubois of Idaho 

 feared that the scrip holders would be the chief beneficiaries of a repeal 

 of some of the land laws. As he explained : "The great tf ouble with us 

 in the West is not the land laws. The great difficulty that we encounter 

 now is the scripping of land. . . . Almost all of this scrip is owned 

 by the railroad corporations. The difficulty that we encounter is the 

 danger from the scripping of these lands by the railroad corporations 

 or by people who buy the scrip from them. ... I am suspicious 

 sometimes that the owners of this scrip are pressing for the repeal of 

 these beneficdnt land laws. It is apparent that if all the land laws, 

 except the homestead, were repealed and the commutation clause of the 

 Homestead Act done away with, the scrip would become vastly more 

 valuable." Without a doubt Dubois was honest, and even fairly accu- 

 rate, in his description of the scrip situation in the West. 



Newlands of Nevada favored the repeal of the act,^^ although he 

 devoted most of his attention to the matter of irrigation. Clark of 

 Wyoming was very desirous that nothing should be done to "interfere 

 |Hk with the development of the West" ; and, like Dubois, he declared that 

 ^^ an insistent lobby of scrip holders was the main influence behind the 

 bill.^* "Never in the history of public land legislation," he asserted, 

 "has there been such a determined and such an insistent lobby as has 

 been behind this proposition for the last three years to repeal the 

 land laws of the United States. It is no secret that they have a bureau 

 established here in this city for that purpose. It is no secret that they 

 maintain a weekly organ of publication devoted to this and to this 

 alone. It is no secret that one of the greatest of these holders boasted 

 in a public speech at a banquet within the last two months that his 

 company alone had contributed $25,000 to this propaganda." Like 

 Newlands, Clark was more interested in other matters than in the 

 Timber and Stone Act, but he evidently did not favor its repeal. 

 Senator Warren opposed absolute repeal of the act unless some other 

 law were passed, permitting the sale of timber.^® 



36 Cong. Bee, Mar. 25, 3662, 3663, 3665, 3666. 



37 Ibid., 3668, 3669. 



38 Ibid., Mar. 31, 4032, 



39 Ibid., Apr. 2, 4144. During these discussions frequent reference was made, by 



