HOSTILITY TO NATIONAL FORESTS 277 



institutions of public benefit maintained upon the very forest reserves 

 themselves. . . . Would it be fair to have a non-resident landholder 

 in the state exempted from contribution to the expenses of the state 

 and the local government ? Should the United States be exempt from 

 contributing to the cost of its own protection and the protection of its 

 own property?" Senator Heyburn once claimed that it cost one county 

 in Idaho $8000 in one. year to try cases that originated upon the 

 forest reserves.^^ 



Representative Humphrey, in connection with an effort a few years 

 later to secure an investigation of the Forest Service, claimed that 

 the state of Washington had received $14,400 a year where the taxes 

 on the timber would have yielded at least $7,593,500 annually.^^ Rep- 

 resentative Johnson of the same state asserted that it cost one county 

 in Washington $100,000 to "help out the Forest Service"; while the 

 25 per cent contribution from the government amounted to $24.65. 

 Speaking of the withdrawal of 700,000 acres of so-called agricultural 

 land from the Olympia National Forest in 1901, Johnson admitted 

 that the land fell mainly into the hands of the big timber owners ; but 

 he insisted that "the money they paid the settlers was the money that 

 kept that part of the country going" and that the "wages they pay in 

 camps, mills, and offices is to this day the principal support of the 

 country in question. But for the withdrawal of 1901, another county 

 would have been bankrupted."^^ Hawley of Oregon claimed that his 

 state was getting $50,000 a year in lieu of about $1,000,000 which 

 she would have got by taxation, had her timber lands been in private 

 hands. ^* 



There is no doubt some justice in these complaints. The Forest 

 Service admits that in some cases the national forests impose a heavy 

 burden on settlers, and as Mr. Graves puts it: "There is little com- 

 fort to the man who, with a handful of neighbors, must pay heavy 

 taxes for roads, schools, and other purposes, in the thought that at 

 some time in the more or less indefinite future, conservation will mean 

 increased local prosperity. He bears his burdens now. Though the 



81 Conff. Rec, Mar. 7, 1910, 2842; Mar. 8, 1910, 2893. 



32 Cong. Bee, 63 Cong, 1 sess., 1867. 



33 Cong. Rec, 63 Cong. 1 sess., 5972; 63 Cong. 2 sess., 4635. 



34 Cong. Bee, 64 Cong. 1 sess., 6404. 



