234 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



recorded in these scandalous reports. The exploitation of evil reports 

 has been a conspicuous feature of the present secretary's administra- 

 tion. Fraud has been constantly and vociferously shouted from the 

 house tops. . . . On the assumption that our settlers are land thieves 

 in the main, the most odious, oppressive, and exasperating treatment 

 has been meted out to them in numerous cases for the last five or six 

 years. . . . Should some morbid delinquent pay nightly visits to the 

 dens of vice and make morning calls at the police courts in all your 

 splendid eastern cities, and then announce to the world from day to 

 day with loud acclaim, that crime and moral leprosy overwhelmed you 

 all, he would, at his pitiable best, play in your field the part the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior and his cohorts have played as regards the 

 people of the public land states for the last six years."** 



Carter laid the entire responsibility for the "indefensible" order 

 upon Secretary Hitchcock rather than upon Roosevelt, who "had 

 been deceived and alarmed" by the reports of the secretary. "The 

 President and all others misled by the crusade of misrepresentation," 

 he declared, "are clearly free from responsibility." 



Later the same day, Heyburn arose in the Senate and undertook 

 to show by a citation of authorities that the President had no legal 

 power to issue the order staying the issue of patents, and to prove 

 further that the President's concern at the "extremely unsatisfactory 

 condition of the public land laws"*^ was without foundation. "Those 

 laws are older than the public experience of any man in this 

 body," he said.*^ "There is slight ground for complaining of the land 

 laws. There never was a more perfect system of settlement, the build- 

 ing up of states, conceived by mortal man than is embodied in these 

 land laws." This of course referred to the land laws generally, but 

 Heyburn specifically approved of the Timber and Stone Act, although 

 he considered that the 160 acres which could be taken up under its 

 provisions was too much.*^ 



Senator Heyburn was not contented with discussing the issues 



44 Cong. Bee, Jan. 30, 1907, 1934 et seq. Carter, like Heyburn at other times, 

 even entered the field of magazine writing in his fight against the reserves. 

 (Independent, 60, 667: Leslie's Weekly, Oct. 27, 1910.) 



45 S. Doc. 141 ; 59 Cong. 2 sess. 



46 Cong. Bee, Jan. 30, 1907, 1960. 



47 Ibid., 2019. 



