264 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



toward government regulation, the evidence is somewhat conflicting. 

 The Public Lands Commission of 1903 sent out 1400 inquiries to 

 stockmen, asking their views on this, and 1090 of the replies received 

 were favorable to government control, while only 183 were opposed. In 

 the opinion of the writer, however, this does not represent accurately 

 the attitude of the stockmen toward such control as the Forest Ser- 

 vice has exercised — a control that involves the exaction of a fee for 

 grazing. The complaints of various western men in Congress, and 

 other evidence as well, indicate that many of the stockmen are still 

 opposed ; and probably when the grazing fees are raised to something 

 approximating a commercial level, this opposition will become even 

 stronger.^® Some stockmen, it is true, feel that the inclusion of grazing 

 lands within the national forests is an advantage to grazers, because 

 it protects them against the encroachments of settlers. This rests upon 

 the assumption that the national forests are closed to settlement, an 

 assumption that is valid at least as far as fraudulent settlement is 

 concerned. Some of the reserves being closed to sheep, it is natural 

 that many cattlemen in those districts should look favorably upon the 

 system which protects them from their bitterest enemies. It has been 

 claimed that practically all of the cattlemen in some sections are 

 strongly favorable to the reserves. 



MINING IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS 



Complaints that the national forests interfere with mining develop- 

 ment have not been as common as in an earlier period, yet they are 

 still heard occasionally. The contention is that it is difficult to say, 

 in the early stages of a mining claim, whether it is going to be a 

 success or a failure, and that no mining prospector cares to search 

 for minerals, knowing that his work and his judgment have to be sub- 

 mitted to some forester to determine their validity. It has been claimed 

 that prospectors have tended to leave the forest reserves, because of 

 the exactions of the Forest Service. 



It is doubtful whether the Forest Service has discouraged legiti- 

 mate mining industry. The discouragement has generally been placed 

 in the way of a wrong use of the mining laws, and extravagant use of 

 the timber resources ; and that is the reason for many of. the com- 



16 Forest Bui. 62, p. 24. 



