ii8 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



demagogues to influence them against the policy that 

 was primarily for their own interest. 



"Another principle which led to the bitterest 

 antagonism of all was this : whoever (except a bona- 

 fide settler) takes public property for private profit 

 should pay for what he gets. In the effort to apply 

 this principle, the Forest Service obtained a decision 

 from the Attorney-General that it was legal to make 

 the men who grazed sheep and cattle on the National 

 Forests pay for what they got. Accordingly, in the 

 summer of 1906, for the first time, such a charge 

 was made; and, in the face of bitterest opposition, 

 it was collected. 



"Up to the time the National Forests were put 

 under the charge of the Forest Service, the Interior 

 Department had made no effort to establish public 

 regulation and control of water-powers. Upon the 

 transfer, the Service immediately began -its fight to 

 handle the power resources of the National Forests 

 so as to prevent speculation and monopoly and to 

 yield a fair return to the Government. On May i, 

 1906, an Act was passed granting the use of certain 

 power sites in Southern California to the Edison 

 Electric Power Company, which Act, at the sug- 

 gestion of the Service, limited the period of the per- 

 mit to forty years, and required the payment of an 

 annual rental by the company, the same conditions 

 which were thereafter adopted by the Service as the 

 basis for all permits for power development. Then 

 began a vigorous fight against the position of the 



