168 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



thread, calico, sugar and possibly a pair of coarse, heavy 

 shoes, my opinion is that they would change their views 

 on the timber question rapidly and decidedly. "It is a 

 condition and not a theory" that confronts the average 

 early settler. I firmly believe that if the President or 

 his man Pinchot, under conditions as above described, 

 should be compelled to take their team and go 100 miles 

 or more away from home to work on a railroad grade, to 

 get a few dollars, leaving their families at home, unpro- 

 vided for, only as they can eke out their own exist- 

 ence, all this with winter coming on, in mid-winter, per- 

 haps, when they are so far from home that the wife or 

 child could take sick and die and they often do be- 

 fore the husband can reach them, these men might 

 come to the conclusion that other people aside from those 

 holding high political positions know some things, es- 

 pecially of their own local conditions. This picture is 

 not overdrawn. Hundreds of people have gone through 

 and are going through that very experience today. Not 

 so many, perhaps, as a few years ago, but nine-tenths 

 of the people of Wyoming outside of the towns, are, 

 going through a part of it, even today, and will continue 

 to do so for many years to come. 



The question comes like this : Why does the Presi- 

 dent or Mr. Pinchot want to do these things that so 

 harass the settlers? What do they expect to gain? The 

 timber that the settler wants is the dry down timber. No 

 farmer hauls green timber and would not haul it if you 

 gave it to him, if he could get the dry timber, which is 

 absolutely worthless to forest preservation. So far all 

 the green timber that has been cut has been by big tie 

 companies and they seem to have no trouble in getting 

 all the timber required for their needs. 



A great majority of the western people believe there 

 is an ulterior motive back of all this work. Not many 

 years ago there was a move on foot to establish a game 

 preserve in that country south and east of the Yellow- 

 stone park. There was a decided cry against such a 

 proposition, however, and the idea was dropped tempo- 

 rarily. Now we hear of another effort to establish that 

 same country in a game preserve and that seems to be 

 the African concealed in the woodpile. The cry is that 

 the stock is taking up the place that rightfully belongs 

 to the game. The idea is silly, even if true. Wild game 

 has no place on this continent that domestic stock can 

 use, hence can not usurp its place. I think I am safe 

 in saying that not one in any one hundred citizens of 

 Wyoming go out hunting big game, and, if they do, it 

 is for the sport and not the necessity or value. The 

 people who have to hustle for a living have no time to 

 hunt. 



Of course, it may be great sport for some fellow 

 from the east to come out here in a private car, and 

 with brass band and perfect press agency, go out hunt- 

 ing, while a waiting people eagerly scan the daily pa- 

 pers to see whether it was a grizzly or o cotton-tail that 

 falls before the mighty Nimrod. This high and mighty 

 one, with a crew of guides and scouts and a pack of dogs 

 to scare up and surround the poor, frightened animal so 

 that it can not get away, may call it great sport to shoot 

 it, but the western man calls it rot. One band of sheep 

 or cattle that helps to make a living for some settler is 

 worth more than all the game in the world, and must 

 eventually give way to settlers and progress. We don't 

 want game preserves, neither do we want timber re- 

 serves that harass the settler. If the government wants 



to start a nursery and use ground that will grow some- 

 thing and actually make trees grow, we might see our 

 way clear to give them help, but until they do that they 

 are standing in front of the wheels of civilization and 

 progression. 



The officials of forestry now claim that their system 

 is becoming self-supporting. It is not and it never will 

 be. They may collect fees enough to pay their salaries, but 

 isn't it the most absurd idea in the world to pay some 

 irresponsible person a fee to tell you what to do with 

 your own goods? Some ranger or chief forester, with 

 absolutely no interest at stake, tells you that you can 

 run your sheep or cattle on a certain hillside, or may 

 get a load of logs from a certain place, and you pay 

 him for the privilege delightful idea, isn't it? The 

 people are paying all of this great expense and receiv- 

 ing nothing of value in return. 



Why is it that some one from Washington takes up 

 this idea of saving the forests and leasing bad lands for 

 pasture? The people in this section whose very exist- 

 ence depends upon their own work, have never asked 

 for this supervision ; on the contrary, indeed, they have 

 always opposed it and do now. Should the time ever 

 come when these forests are destroyed the people most 

 dependent upon them will find other means of taking 

 care of themselves. 



The idea so carefully advanced that the timber con- 

 serves water, is fully exploded by this time. No one 

 believes that who has made a study of the question. All 

 the water needed for late irrigation comes from the 

 snow that lies far above timber line, and the snow that 

 lays in the timber is always the first to go in the spring. 

 The men who use water late in the season, and whose 

 very lives depend upon it, are quite as apt to take of 

 the forest if it is necessary to conserve water as is some- 

 one who knows nothing of those questions and who are 

 in no way affected by the water, whether high or low. 

 The one who is interested will, as a rule, look after his 

 own interest as well as the one who has no direct inter- 

 est at all. The idea that they are worrying and labor- 

 ing for a future and suffering humanity is one we look 

 at with a large question mark. 



Many of the conditions, as above stated, refer as 

 well to the range leasing proposition as to the timber. 

 Why does the government want to get into the matter at 

 all ? From the landing of the first people on Plymouth 

 rock, the commons have been public, and were used in 

 common by all the people until such time as they went 

 into private ownership. At that time and for all time 

 until within the last few years, all ideas, thoughts, rules 

 and laws have been to get the lands into private own- 

 ership with as little delay and friction as possible. 

 Large grants of land were given for small services, and 

 for the building of railroads and canals and in every 

 other way has the effort been to get the lands into pri- 

 vate ownership. All this has been done until within 

 the last few years, when a system of spying and har- 

 assment has been carried out, with charges of theft 

 and insinuations of conspiracies that has been equaled 

 by no other government on earth. 



Without that system of common usage, a system 

 that every person on the frontier has taken advantage 

 of, this country could never have been settled as it is 

 today. It is reported that there was a time when our 

 present president ran a few cattle on the range as a 

 side issue, or for the fun of it or for some reason other 



