GRAZING FEES-GUARANTY PRICE ON WHEAT. 



Committee on AGRicuiiTtrRE, 



House of Representatives, 



Thursday, April 1, 1920. 

 The committee this day met, Hon. Gilbert N. Haugen (chairman) 

 presiding. 



The Chairman. Mr. Tomlinson would like to make a statement 

 on the grazing proposition. 



STATEMENT OF MR. T. W. TOMLINSON, SECRETARY AMERICAN 

 NATIONAL LIVE STOCK ASSOCIATION, DENVER, COLO. 



Mr. Tomlinson. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, 

 my mission before you this morning is to urge that your committee 

 send a subcommittee from your membership into the West for the 

 purpose of inspecting the grazing conditions on the national forests. 

 When the Agricultural appropriation bill was under consideration 

 by your committee, I believe it was the view of many of your mem- 

 bers that the fees now being charged by the Forest Service were 

 disproportionate to the value of the grazing. When I appeared 

 briefly before your committee something over two weeks ago, in 

 answer to a question I referred to the advance in charges which was 

 put into effect in 1918 and 1919 and to the five-year permit which 

 was granted at that time. There was a great deal of discussion 

 between stockmen and Secretary Houston and the officials of the 

 Forest Service at the time this 100 per cent advance was projected, 

 and a good many stockmen felt that the proposed increase was not 

 justified by the grazing conditions on the forest reserves. However, 

 the Secretary of Agriculture and the forest officials offered to the 

 users of the forests the privilege of a five-year permit, which, in effect, 

 provided that they would not be disturbed, so far as the number of 

 head of live stock which they were permitted to graze during that 

 five-year period was concerned, and without any change in the rate. 

 This was intended to stabilize and steady the business of grazing on 

 the national forests. It was clearly understood by the stockmen at 

 that time that there would be no change in the fee until the. expira- 

 tion of the five-year grazing permit, and I believe that is supported 

 by the wording of the permit. As I stated before your committee 

 some three weeks ago, there was no written contract to that effect ; 

 it was an implied agreement or understanding which the stockmen 

 construed in the nature of a contract, something not unlike, if I may 

 be permitted to say, the celebrated hog guaranty of 13 to 1, which 

 the committee is familiar with. 



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