60i 



appears they had the magnificent sum of $25,000 with which to pur- 

 chase 3,000,000 of acres of land in the Adirondack region and 

 the accusation amounts to this, that they have simply had this money 

 at their command since the Legislature of 1890 and, because they have 

 not employed the $25,000 for the purpose of buying that 3,000,000 of 

 acres of land within the last year it is . insisted they have been in 

 collusion with the lumbermen for the purpose _of allowing ' fhem to 

 make contracts in order that it might be morfc expensive to the State, 

 and it turns upon the whole when the testimony comes in, that the 

 making of those contracts by the lumbermen is in one y ear a crime 

 on their part and that it is the part of wisdom on the part of the State 

 to allow such contracts to be made, to encourage them, because every- 

 one aggrees that the soft woods may be takeji off without apy injury 

 to the land, and hence the first ground of complaint, that the com- 

 mission have not done their duty because they have not purchased lands 

 and have allowed these contracts to be made, utterly fails for Pro 

 reasons; in the fiist place there has only been $25,000 at their disposal 

 and command and that for less than a year, and in the second place, 

 the contracts which have been made have not been been in any. way 

 injurious to the rights of the State or enchanced the difficulties in the 

 way of procuring titles to lands. 



The second ground, of complaint at the outset of this inquiry was, 

 that the commission had allowed lumbermen to obtain State lands by 

 way of exchange and that they had obtained an unfair advantage 

 over tue State in that respect. This statement has dwindled to a 

 simple question of fact that the commission recommended an exchange 

 with the Everton Lnmber Company, if 26,000 acres could be obtained 

 for 12,000, the 26,000 to be within the limits of the proposed park while 

 the 12,000 were outside the limits of the proposed park and that that 

 recommendation is much more advantageous to the State than the State, 

 or any corporation, or any person would have a right to claim or insist 

 upon, because upon a fair appraisal it is found to be 10,000 acreamore 

 advantageous than the price of the land warranted. That is the out- 

 come of the statement that lumber companies or lumbermen have 

 obtained unfair advantage in the way of exchanges with the State and 

 I ought to state here that the exchange of the Everton Lumber 

 Company has not been consummated and is not likely to be consum- 

 mated by reason that the report of the appraisers . gives 10,000 acres 

 more to the State than the proviso in the resolution of the forest com- 

 mission, and hence the arrangement can not be carried out unless the 

 report of the appraisers is ignored to the extent of the parties inter- 

 ested for the Everton Lumber Company coming up to the proposition 



