HOSTILITY TO NATIONAL FORESTS 255 



"The forest reservd system hampers all forms of industrial develop- 

 ment. We have an area larger than many a European kingdom put 

 to its lowest instead of its highest economic use. We have a policy 

 which is an absolute reversal of more than one hundred years of 

 national habit and tradition; a policy which holds barrenness a 

 blessing, and settlement a sin; which fines, instead of encouraging, 

 the man who would develop a natural resource." 



In the anti-conservation attack of 1912, there was much complaint 

 about the emigration of settlers to Canada, which was claimed to be 

 due to the greater liberality of the Canadian settlement laws. Senator 

 Borah was particularly anxious that something be done to make the 

 laws of the United States so liberal that settlers would no longer 

 have to go to Canada to secure homes. Senator Smoot of Utah very 

 properly pointed out, however, that in many respects the Canadian 

 land laws are less generous than those of the United States.^ 



Without a doubt, many of the complaints about the interference 

 with the development of the West were made in all earnestness and 

 good faith ; but in general they were based upon a narrow view of the 

 interests of the country as a whole, often on a short-sighted view of 

 the development of the West itself. 



I! INCLUSION OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS 



I In no way has the reservation policy "interfered as much with the 

 ■velopment of the West," perhaps, as by the inclusion of agricultural 

 ands within the forest reserves. This has of course been a cause of 

 western hostility since the very beginning of the reservation policy. 

 Representative Taylor of Colorado once asserted that the opposition 

 of the West was directed largely at the "conservation of sage brush, 

 cactus, and buffalo grass. "^ 



As indicated in a previous chapter, an act was passed in 1906 pro- 

 viding that the Secretary of Agriculture might examine and segregate 

 any lands within forest reserves which were chiefly valuable for agri- 

 culture and might be so used without injury to the forest reserves. 

 Since this law left the opening of lands to the discretion of the Secre- 



^Covg. Rec, Feb. 26, 1909, 3222, 3223, 3226; Feb. 1, 1910, 1353; May 19, 1910, 

 6521; May 14, 1912, 6397; Mar. 10, 1914, 4637; 63 Cong, 1 sess.. Appendix, 465: 

 No. Am. Rev., Apr., 1910: Independent, 68, 697. 



3 Cong. Rec, Feb. 1, 1910, 1352. 



