FIFTH NATIONAI, CONSERVATION CONGRESS 333 



through the premature bringing of land into market, through trespassing, 

 through under-appraisement and through the sale on credit of timber lands 

 which were forfeited to the State after they had been stripped of their 

 wealth ; the State, the people of the State, and prospective settlers have 

 suffered great loss and great injustice because of the sale of immense tracts 

 to speculators." 



"In his message of 1849 Governor Dewey complained that the practice 

 of disposing of the public domain in unHmited quantities was becoming a 

 crying evil. In many parts of the State, settlement was being greatly 

 retarded because immense tracts of the best lands were being held by 

 speculators. Settlers were obliged to pay advanced prices for their homes, 

 and then by their labor they enhanced the value of neighboring land held by 

 non-residents. In one county a single individual, who was not even a resi- 

 dent of the United States, held upwards of 30,000 acres. It was reported 

 in 1854 that in the northern counties most of the school lands were entered 

 by persons in the East, and in maiiy cases in 30,000 and 40,000 acre tracts. 

 Advertisements of large tracts of school lands were common. In 1858 

 James P. Falkner advertised for sale 50,000 acres of choice school lands in 

 eastern and western parts of the State. In 1855 Mann, Hammond & Co. 

 offered for sale over 100,000 acres of choice school lands in northern and 

 northwestern counties. Such advertisements show that a great deal of 

 State land was bought for speculative purposes. The joint investigating com- 

 mittee of 1855 showed that in 1854 over 200,000 acres had been sold without 

 any payment down and on thirty years' credit. To nine persons were sold 

 129,520 acres. The smallest sale among these nine sales was one of 5,065 

 acres. There were among these nine sales one of 34,701 acres and one of 

 28,124 acres. . 



"The wasteful and often shamelessly corrupt management of Wiscon- 

 sin's public lands illustrates two very important principles of public financial 

 administration; first, it is folly to economize unduly in the management of 

 great public interests, and second, laws will not execute themselves. . . 



The legislature enacted many land laws that were excellent in themselves, 

 but which failed to accomplish their ends or did so only- in a minor degree, 

 because good and efficient administrative machinery for their enforcement 

 was lacking. The problem was by no means an easy one, but the way in 

 which its public lands and its trust funds have been managed should be a 

 source of regret and of shame to the great State of Wisconsin." 



MICHIGAN AND CALIFORNIA 



MICHIGAN has no better record. It sold lands as low as one cent an 

 acre and received on an average but one dollar per acre as consider- 

 ation. California sold its timber lands at the uniform price of $1.25 

 per acre and sold them to the first applicant. But it may be said, "This is all 

 past history, the States did as well as the general government, and legislatures 

 were no more profligate or short-sighted in handling the public lands than was 

 Congress. The States have the experience of others to guide them, and they 

 will act more wisely." 



WASHINGTON AND OREGON 



BUT will tliey ? Are they so acting? Let us see: The State of Washing- 

 ton has always been more or less the storm center of opposition to Federal 

 control and has some of the most energetic advocates of State control. 

 It is comparatively a new State and had a very large area of forest land. It had 



