THE UNRESERVED TIMBER LAND 237 



fires in the West burned over vast areas of timber land. The burned 

 timber would of course only rot if not disposed of, and agitation soon 

 arose for a law permitting the sale of such timber. Bills were brought 

 into Congress by several representatives from the public land states — 

 Mondell, Pray of Montana, and Robinson of Arkansas ;^^ and in 1913, 

 after the burned timber had been given time to rot, a law was finally 

 secured authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to sell at public 

 auction any timber outside of the national forests killed or damaged 

 by forest fires. ^^ This is as far as Congress ever went in the sale of 

 timber on the general public domain. The Timber and Stone Act is 

 still on the Federal statute books ; and the Secretary of the Interior 

 reported 575 timber and stone entries patented in 1916. 



TIMBER SALES WITHOUT LEGISLATIVE AUTHORIZATION 



Congress thus never authorized the sale of timber, except burned 

 timber, on the unreserved lands ;^^ but in 1898, the Department of the 

 Interior attempted such sales, under the Permit Act of 1891."*' The 

 Permit Act merely authorized the issue of free timber permits, under 

 such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior should provide."^ A 

 "regulation" requiring payment for this "free" timber seems hardly 

 included within the meaning of the law, yet the secretary acted on the 

 theory that this was permissible, and a few small sales were made.'^ 

 After two or three years' experience with this system, however, the 

 department awakened to the ultra vires character of the business, and 

 the regulation providing for sales was repealed.*^ 



Thus the history of the Timber and Stone Act after 1891 was in 

 almost every respect like the history of that act in the previous period. 

 It was a means of gross frauds, resulting in the concentration of tim- 

 ber ownership in the hands of speculators and large timber companies ; 

 its iniquitous effects were constantly brought to the attention of Con- 

 gress, and Congress, in response to repeated recommendations for its 



57 H. R. 29711; 61 Cong. 3 sess.: H. R. 8783, H. R. 4695, H. R. 11475; 62 Cong. 

 1 sess.: H. R. 24266; 62 Cong. 2 sess. 



58 Stat. 37, 1015. 



59 See however, Stat. 30, 414. 



«o "Land Decisions," 26, 399, 404. 



61 Stat. 26, 1093, 1094. 



^2 Reports, Land Office; 1898, 101; 1899, 127; 1900, 107. 



«3 Report, Land Office, 1901, 98. 



