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nore the importance of the preservation of the timber, and invite, ina measure, great 
waste and greedy speculation by individuals and corporations. It is impolitie and 
unjust in not preserving timber for the use of future settlers and inhabitants, and 
permitting it to be taken in large quantities without consideration and proper re- 
strictions. It, however, is stili the law, and so long as it remains on the statute book 
it can be enforced. ; ; 
The act of June 3, 1878, gives the timber to the miner and settler, but if the saw- 
mill men can come in and cut and sell it, they, and not the settlers, will get the ben- 
efit of the timber. The interest of the settlers and lumbermen in this matter are not 
identical. 
But a later circular (August 5, 1886) permits the sale of timber or 
lumber to bona fide residents for the legitimate use of the purchasers in 
compliance with the provisions of the act, which means for actual per- 
sonal consumption. In this cireular the right of existence of saw-mills 
using timber cut on Government land is recognized, and while it is im- 
posed upon the saw-mill men to keep such records as will show where 
the timber they manufacture comes from, and to obtain an agreement 
from the purchaser that he will use the timber legitimately according 
to the spirit of the act, the door is opened to circumvent the law. 
It is also stated that ‘‘ there exists no authority of law for granting | 
the privilege of cutting timber on the public lands and paying stump- 
age therefor ;” that “there is no authority todisp ose of burned timber 
separately from the land.” - 
In 1887: | 
Such a record of crime as that shown by investigations made by special agents 
during the last two years is rarely to be found. Bold, reckless, and gigantic schemes 
to rob the Government of its lands have been discovered and exposed in every State 
and Territory containing public lands. 
The unavoidable continuance, on account of the early exhaustion of the appropria- 
tion to pay witnesses in United States courts, of the important cases against the Sierra 
Lumber Company, in California, involving over $2,000,000, and in which two special 
agents of this office devoted nearly their entire time for a year in securing evidence 
and preparing for a successful prosecution, and of the cases against the Montana Im- 
provement Company and Northern Pacific Railroad Company, in Montana and Idaho 
Territories, involving an equal, if not greater, amount, is greatly to be regretted. 
The delay in these cases can not fail to be exceedingly detrimental to the public in- 
terests. The Government, so far as the office is concerned, was fully prepared, and 
had every reason to expect that had said cases come to trial judgments would have 
been secured for nearly the entire amounts sued for. 
During the delay in the prosecution of the above and other important pending causes 
the defendants are by no meansidle. They not only continue their unlawful depre- 
dations on public timber in defiance of all efforts of this office to prevent that course, 
but they avail themselves of every such opportunity to destroy the evidence of their 
past transgressions and to nullify the efforts of this office. 
By the time these cases can again be brought to trial many of the witnesses will 
have disappeared and much of the evidence depended upon by the Government will 
have been destroyed, necessitating a re-investigafion and the securing of additional 
evidence in nearly every case, thereby duplicating the expenses of the special agents 
in preparing the cases for trial, exhausting the appropriation, and rendering it im- 
possible for this office to cause the investigation of the many new and flagrant cases 
of trespass which are brought to its attention. The appropriation for this branch 
of the public service is altogether inadequate for the purpose. 


