ioo OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



inspection in the federal lands were so small that 

 few frauds, compared with the many, could be prose- 

 cuted; and, because Congress repeatedly defeated 

 bills to give the federal departments power to com- 

 pel the testimony of witnesses, few law-breakers 

 were brought to trial. Cases by the thousand were 

 thrown out of court for lack of competent proof 

 which could have been had if it had been possible to 

 subpoena witnesses who would not serve voluntarily. 

 In 1885, the United States government sought to 

 recover the value of sixty million feet of high grade 

 lumber stolen from the public forests by a single 

 California company. 



Meantime, under the constant urgings of Sena- 

 tors and Representatives from forested states, the 

 laws were constantly amended to favor the "poor 

 settler," who was described as struggling to "keep 

 a roof over the heads of his children," whereas the 

 final beneficiaries were almost always speculators or 

 wealthy companies. Under the rulings of Secretary 

 of the Interior H. M. Teller of Colorado, and of sev- 

 eral Public Lands Commissioners and other officials 

 here and there in power, the freest possible construc- 

 tion was put upon ambiguous phrases in the forest 

 laws. For one example, when the railroads had dis- 

 posed of the timber in their own munificent grants, 

 Secretary Teller construed the phrase "adjacent 

 to the line of road" in the Right-of-Way Act to 

 mean that railroads could cut timber free within 

 fifty miles of their tracks. Later he approved the 



