10 
erty is intrusted, insisted that under existing laws and conditions not 
only is it impossible to protect the property of the people against theft 
and devastation, but the need of the settler and the requirements of the 
industrial pursuits being disregarded by the law, the users of timber are 
by necessity forced to become depredators if they wish to satisfy their 
needs. That such must be the case may be inferred from the fact that 
within the last seven years, since 1881, over $36,000,000 worth of timber 
has been reported as stolen, not to speak of the large amount of depre- 
dations which must have been left undiscovered. 
While the Government might have donated this timber, or timber and 
land, to those who have needed it—although the need of home consump- 
tion has presumably had a less share in these spoils than the greed of 
lumbering monopolists—it must be a matter of shame and reproach to 
us to have in this manner allowed the spoliation of the public property; 
certainly a state of affairs, which allows such robbing of its partners 
from year to year, does not speak well for either the wisdom of the laws 
or the morality of the community. ea 
In addition to these spoliations of its direct material value, the public 
timber domain has suffered untold damage by reckless, willful, or care- 
less firing, and in every respect the management of this part of our na- 
tional inheritance reflects cise re dl on our much-praised business 
capacity. 
It has been claimed that the fault lies with the existing laws, and this 
charge has no doubt good foundation. The charity which the Govern- 
ment has extended, in allowing free use of its property under certain 
conditions, the settled community now would gladly exchange for a fair 
bargain, in which the consumer pays for what he uses, and gains aright 
as against a mere privilege. 
Any one who will take the trouble to trace, year by year, the ex- 
pressions in regard to this interest of the nation, in the reports of the 
Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioners of the Land Office, will 
be astounded that no hearing has been accorded to them which would 
lead to a proper management of this interest. 
Recommendations for a change occur from year to year, dating back 
earlier than 1880, but they have become more and more urgent since 
then as the need has become moreurgent. Extracts from the reports of 
the Commissioners of the Land Office will be found further on. 
The Secretary of the Interior, in 1880, after devoting over six pages 
to the subject of forestry, says: 
Iregret to say that in spite of the repeated recommendation of the passage of a law 
to facilitate the prevention of the wasteful devastation of the public timber lands, 
and to enable the Government to dispose of timber to settlers and miners, as well as 
for legitimate mercantile purposes under such regulations as would prevent the in- 
discriminate and permanent destruction of our forests, almost all the legislation that 
has been had upon this subject consisted in acts relieving those who had committed 
depredations in the past of their responsibility and protecting them against the legal 
consequences of their trespasses, etc. 

