THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



137 



A Homesteader's View of the Forestry Bureau's Policy. 



[From The Denver Post.] 



Stripped of all the habiliments of masquerade, 

 under which the several measures appear, the cold and 

 stubborn fact confronts us, that slowly but surely four- 

 fifths to five-sixths of the soil of our commonwealth of 

 Colorado, is passing into the domain of a foreign 

 bureaucracy to be administered under the form of 

 offensive landlordism. 



It ever was and ever will be that the leasing from 

 foreign owners, of the lands of a country, is demoraliz- 

 ing to, and a direct tax upon the people and institu- 

 tions of that country. Merely because in this case the 

 United States is that owner and the lands adminis- 

 tered by a department at Washington, does not alter 

 the principles involved in the slightest degree. The 

 manner in which it affects the commonwealth of Colo- 

 rado is precisely the same as if the owner were the czar 

 of Russia and the lands administered from St. Peters- 

 burg. 



The preservation of the forests struck an exceed- 

 ingly popular chord with the American people and 

 especially with the people of the East. Under this 

 guise, therefore, it served as the cradle whereby the 

 "innovation" was fostered, encouraged and grew, and 

 all the time with the enthusiastic support of the people 

 for the preservation of the forests. In said act of 

 1897 was incorporated the provision that the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior might make such rules and regu- 

 lations in their "use" as would serve their object, 

 viz., the preservation of the forests, and upon the con- 

 struction of that term "use" doubtless intended rela- 

 tive to their use in cutting timber and notwithstand- 

 ing the act says: "No public forest reservation shall 

 be established, except to improve and protect the forest." 

 * '* * "That it is not the purpose of the act to 

 authorize the inclusion therein of lands more valuable 

 for the mineral therein, or for agricultural purposes, 



CORNING, THE MAYWOOD COLONY TOWN, AS SEEN FROM THE TRAIN. 



Building on the right is the Southern Pacific depot; next Hotel Maywood; next Maywood Opera Hall, while the tower building is the 

 home office of the Maywood Colony. From the tower, which is 75 feet high, the Maywood Colony, comprising 39,000 acres, is under one's eye. 

 Mt. Shasta, 140 miles to the north, is in plain view, as well as the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range Mountains, which form the walls of the Sacra- 

 mento Valley, and draw in closer at this point. Corning is a No-Saloon town. 



When we pause to reflect that from its birth and 

 ever throughout the entire growth of our republic and 

 that of our magnificent edifice of Americanism, there 

 was no principle, no material, no factor so abhorrent, 

 so thoroughly eschewed and so foreign to the Ameri- 

 can soil as "landlordism," it seems amazing that this 

 complete innovation this revolution should come 

 about almost unawares and apparently universally as- 

 sumed in the East, and largely acquiesced in through- 

 out the West. 



A little study and investigation, however, reveals 

 the cause and affords an explanation, and by it is 

 brought to light the remarkable combination of cir- 

 cumstances whereby a whole people are beguiled and 

 ltd unwittingly into the creation of conditions abso- 

 lutely abhorrent when realized. 



The birth of this "revolution" was the congres- 

 sional act of March 3, 1891, under which the "Yellow- 

 stone Public Reservation" was created, and acting 

 under a very liberal interpretation of its provisions, 

 the "Forest Reserves" came into existence. Those pre- 

 vious thereto, and the others formed later, were made 

 legal by the act of June 4, 1897. 



than for forest purposes," and further, "Nor shall any- 

 thing herein prohibit any person from entering upon 

 such forest reservations for all lawful purposes" in- 

 dicating clearly that the creation of these reserves was 

 solely for the purpose of protecting the timber thereon ; 

 there has, nevertheless, been built up the most elaborate 

 and complete system of arbitrary and obnoxious land- 

 lordism, ever inflicted upon a people, and undoubtedly 

 by the autocratic dictation of one man, viz., the for- 

 ester, under the guise of "Rules and Regulations." 



He appears to take fiendish delight in seeking 

 every possible scheme and pretext for taxing and annoy- 

 ing the people who must needs use the reserves, .-per- 

 mits must be had for practically every little trivial use, 

 designated as "special uses," of which forty are listed 

 and he enacts the right that "the forester may make 

 a reasonable charge for any permit, right or use." 

 Firewood is charged for, rights of way for pipe lines, 

 telegraph and telephone lines, power transmission lines 

 and other industrial undertakings. Last year he charged 

 pasturage against 11,658 men, each having less than 

 forty head of cattle and doubled the tax of all stock- 



