372 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



values have corresponded to the environment. The men who could 

 seize the largest amount of natural resources and waste them most 

 rapidly were not infrequently regarded as doing most for the "devel- 

 opment of the West." The writer recalls, in this connection, a con- 

 versation he once had with the editor of a Portland (Washington) 

 newspaper regarding the conviction of Senator Mitchell for com- 

 plicity in land frauds. This editor admitted that Mitchell was guilty, 

 but asserted that the prosecution of Mitchell for so common an 

 offense was "the most brutal outrage ever perpetrated on a mortal 

 man." It will be remembered that Binger Hermann was elected to 

 Congress less than a year after he had been dismissed from the Land 

 Office. 



Underlying to some extent the exploitative attitude of the West 

 was the idea that resources which could be appropriated, in some way 

 pried loose from the public domain, belonged to the West ; while those 

 which remained under Federal control belonged to the East. This 

 explains why many men who, from the point of view of straight-laced 

 conservationists, should have been socially ostracized or put in prison, 

 have been regarded as "leading citizens" in some of our western states. 

 They have "led" merely in the work of appropriating Federal lands — 

 "saving" it for the West. 



The West has always been too much saturated with the idea of 

 rapid exploitation. The people saw the apparently unlimited lands 

 and other resources awaiting development; and entered upon their 

 task with the energy which has generally characterized the frontier. 

 They were, as indeed they still are, "boosters" of the most enthu- 

 siastic brand, partly because optimism was in the very air, and partly 

 because many of them had appropriated some of the resources, and 

 were engrossed in an effort to get more, not always with the intention 

 of using them to establish homes, but rather in the hope of selling to 

 someone else at a profit. That was one reason why they opposed any 

 policy which seemed to discourage the coming of people from farther 

 east. Another reason was of course that they realized, as business 

 men generally do in all sections and in all countries, that a growing 

 population increases the value of real estate and other limited natural 

 resources, and so increases the wealth of those who "got there first." 

 Like business men everywhere, those who got there first were inclined 



