344 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



themselves as guilty as those on trial. The effect 

 of the present confused, discriminating, aud un- 

 just system has been to place almost the whole 

 population in opposition to the government ; and 

 as conclusive of its futility, as shown by Mr. 

 Bowers, we need only state that during the seven 

 years from 1881 to 1887 inclusive, the value of 

 the timber reported stolen from the government 

 lands was $36,719,935, and the amount recov- 

 ered was $478,073, while the cost of the ser- 

 vices of special agents alone was $455,000, to 

 which must be added the expense of the trials. 

 Thus for nearly thirty-seven million dollars' worth 

 of timber the government got less than nothing ; 

 and the value of that consumed by running fires 

 during the same period, without benefit even to 

 thieves, was probably over two hundred millions 

 of dollars. Land commissioners and Secretaries 

 of the Interior have repeatedly called attention 

 to this ruinous state of affairs, and asked Con- 

 gress to enact the requisite legislation for rea- 

 sonable reform. But, busied with tariffs, etc., 

 Congress has given no heed to these or other 

 appeals, and our forests, the most valuable and 

 the most destructible of all the natural resources 

 of the country, are being robbed and burned 

 more rapidly than ever. The annual appropria- 

 tion for so-called " protection service " is hardly 

 sufficient to keep twenty-five timber agents in 

 the field, and as far as any efficient protection 



