262 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



GRAZING IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS 

 The grazing lands included in the national forests have continued 

 to claim considerable attention, just as in the earlier period, although 

 it is probable that the hostility arising from this cause has decreased 

 considerably in recent years. Some of the western men have always 

 insisted that the Forest Service has no right to make any charge at 

 all for grazing. As Representative Taylor of Colorado once (1910) 

 expressed it : "It has been one of the important rights and privileges 

 of the settlers of every state in this Union for a hundred years to use, 

 free of charge, the public domain for the grazing of their stock, and 

 why should not our cattle be allowed to eat government grass which 

 would otherwise go to waste.'' It did not cost Uncle Sam a dollar, and 

 why should the government, now for the first time in a century, inflict 

 a tax upon the people of the West for the grazing of that grass ?"^^ 

 Mondell, in similar vein, pointed out that the charge for grazing had 

 never been specifically authorized by Congress. 



To those who denied the right of the government to exact any 

 charge at all for grazing, even a very small charge would seem too 

 high ; and there has been much complaint that the fees are too high ; 

 but as a matter of fact they have been only about one third as high 

 as the fees charged by private owners in the same districts. Within 

 the past few years, there has been some complaint in Congress because 

 this charge was so low, and the Forest Service made plans for a "revi- 

 sion upward," but later abandoned them because of the war. In time, 

 the grazing fees should be raised, because, at their present figure, the 

 demand for grazing privileges on most of the forests far exceeds the 

 carrying capacity, and the granting of privileges necessarily involves 

 discrimination in favor of certain applicants. 



The Forest Service has sometimes been accused of discriminating 

 in favor of large owners. Mondell claimed in 1910 that it was the rich 

 and powerful men in the National Live Stock Association who were 

 most friendly to the Forest Service; that they were given permits 

 while small men were denied ; and that big sheepmen often got control 

 of large areas by having each sheep herder file application for a per- 

 mit. Representative Rucker of Colorado has expressed similar views. ^^ 



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



13 Cong. Rec, Feb. 1, 1910, 1338, 1339; Feb, 10, 1911, 2291. 



