STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 101 



operations of a "logging railroad" company in 

 Washington, which built and operated no railroad 

 whatever except those sunk into the forest for the 

 sole purpose of carrying timber to market. This 

 made the precedent for any logging company with a 

 locomotive, track, and half a dozen flat cars to se- 

 cure the vast tracts of lumber free which the law 

 granted to great railroads. 



Many railroads hired men to file claims on 

 worthless grant lands, counting upon the Interior 

 Department allowing them unclaimed forested lands 

 in any state crossed by their roads in exchange. A 

 later Secretary of the Interior, John W. Noble, 

 found 105,000 untried cases against forest depre- 

 dators accumulated in the Land Office, which he dis- 

 posed of by still further "liberalizing" the adminis- 

 trative interpretation of the laws. 



For many years these practices were open se- 

 crets, and many times were frauds charged in local 

 political campaigns and denounced in newspaper 

 editorials; but, failing convictions, the frauds were 

 never much believed by the public, which was dis- 

 posed to attribute these periodic sensations to poli- 

 tics. There were local and national investigations 

 which failed and were discounted as political. Only 

 once were lumber scandals of magnitude brought 

 home, when two members of Congress were in- 

 dicted ; but one of these died untried and the indict- 

 ment against the other was quashed under a succeed- 

 ing administration. 



