The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1877-06-28

bles, and point oct that huge fraud.
the homestead act, Lis the casise of 1t all.
If the wild piney woods of Louisiana
could be purchnshed form dollar and a
quarter per acre. Hs they were before
the war, q splendid business in lumber
ond square timber would grow mp
around Lake Charles and the iCaleasieu
river which would head 10 u large in.
6rix of population, and the ultimate
settlement and Improvement OF thnus-I
ands ut acres. a rigid enforcement of
Che 'ili-advised homestead law will rnin
Esthat country, AS well as the lumber
: settlements soM Pearl and P,sscagmila
rivers, ,on the J'erdid., and farther
east, fore every mill On all these streams
would have to close and shut up, il
their supply OF logs wereto be restricted
hereafter to those cut on private
hands only. a large portion M our
merchant marine would become idle
aud useless; foreign tonnage and the
money they leave here would he driven
away, and desoltltion and distress would
prevail where peace and plenty ought
toreign.
/ predict, Mr. Editor, that this
wholesale seizure OF Citlcslsieu logs, this
- crusade IN the interests of the pub
he good, will result IN the humiliation
of what little commerce there has
hsen in tie district of the Teche, of
which Lake Charles was the principal
tributary; III the falling off of the
tonnage and hospital money receipts at
the collectors pfiice to nothing and in
Gtiae loss to the United States Df some
thousands Of dollars in costs and ex-
lpenses, over and above what the logs,
that have been seized, may bring at
public sale.
1T has been rtimored. hut i can not
aud will not believe it, that the whole
affair was instigated by some Federal
officials who felt themselves shaking in
their official shoe, and who tried to
get up an extra show of zeal and eff
cienoy IN the interests of the govern
hlent, and thus prevent Il threatened
removal. 1
If this was the case, it is high time
that the federal officials in Mississippi,
Alabama and Florida should be at it,
for business at the saw mills in all
4Ahese States is conducted on exactly the
some basis and in the same style, and
the officials themselves are in the same
danger OF displacement and removal.
Indeed, If sumo extra-officioris and ter
7yibly alarmed United States official on
Pearl river desires to immortalize him.
sell, let him pernse the following item
which clip from one of our city pa
pers:
" Six thousand saw logs, worth
6l4;00O, are in Bogne Chitto, waiting
fiior q Gtreshet before being RATED out of |
that river, the water being low. with
little prospect of rain sufficient to float
them out Of Pearl river this season."
Then let him seize the whole batch
worth @l4.OW. enlist the tlisbanded !
matrOPolitans rs a posse c0mitatns. and
send them on the Dix to the bluffs Of |
the Bogue sChitto, and after the owners
at those logs have proved before the
tedesal conrts that a large portion was
MOT on private land. and none of the
logs ceuldlbe unidentified ms having been
.snt,on public land, bring in at least his
little bill Tor costs and expenses, and
Uncie Sam will ,open his eyes when he
tfinds that the Sid 900 realized will not
begin to pay 1T.
The land Offices of the United States
ase under the control of the depart
ment Of the interior, and the present
secretary, Hon. Carl Schurz is, if 1
mistake not, the very man to combine
strict Justice and the respect that ought
10 be iacsordea to existing laws, with a
liberal and enlightened policy that will
secure the greatest good to the great
est number of people.
j desire, Mr. Editor. TO call your at
isention to smother phase Of the land
snu timber question. which is of some
interest on this Gulf coast that of the
live oak business.
BY an old not of Congress all the live
oak on public lands on the sea-board of
Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana was
reserved for the use of the navy, and
tracts whore the live oak abnnded were
withheld from sale. "A live oak agent"
was appointed for Florida, and one fer
Louisiana. who acted under instrnc-
lions fSon the secretary of the navy
When Franklin Pierce was elected h
Presifient he consolidated these ,agen-
cies into one timber agency" with a
very handsome salary, and the appoint
mont WINS held by Col. D. +. Ia. tClai-
borne, of mississippi, until that State
seoeded from the Union, when he re-
signed. In accepting his resignation
the secretary stated that he did so be-
canse the government could give him
no prOteetion in the discharge of his
duties. nor remit him his .compensa-
tion,; that be had rendered sthorough
apd efficient service; had paid more i
money over than al his predecessors \;
had naUes. m letaf1 fl,a svf,xorv, M
any costs by abortive prosecutions, and
had newer had occasion to make an
RrseSt s II