124 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



No serious attempt was made during Roose- 

 velt's administration or since to repeal the Timber 

 and Stone Act, under which, according to the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences, eleven billion feet of 

 timber were stolen from the public forests during 

 the decade ending in 1897, because by that time little 

 public timber-land of value remained outside the 

 National Forests. It is still on the statute books. 

 So also are the equally "generous" Free Timber and 

 Permit Acts under which manufacturing at no 

 charge for raw material was conducted at enormous 

 profits for many years. 



Throughout the country, the "golden age dec- 

 ade" was marked by the rapid spread of conserva- 

 tion ideals and popular organization, the reaction 

 of which had its powerful effect on Congress. Nev- 

 ertheless, the anti-conservation group struggled man- 

 fully; some of its chieftains maintain to-day, less 

 strenuously but ready when opportunity offers, their 

 advocacy of local as opposed to national uses of the 

 National Forests, together with an attitude of con- 

 stant criticism of the Forest Service. 



Among the men of that time who led the oppo- 

 sition to the policy of forest conservation were Sena- 

 tors Carter of Wyoming, Cannon of Illinois, Tawney 

 of Minnesota, Heyburn of Idaho and Fulton of 

 Oregon, occasionally or frequently assisted by Shaf- 

 roth and Patterson of Colorado, Jones of Washing- 

 ton, Bailey of Texas, Fordney of Michigan, Hemin- 

 way of Indiana, and others. Senators Hale of 



