St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-10-08
THEIR BIG BONANZA:
The Montana Improvement Company and
the Northern Pacific Railroad Made
Defendants.
Alleged Illegal Cutting of Vast Amounts
OF Timber On the Lands of the
Government.
Ihree Suits of Magnitude About to Sa
Commenced Against tho
Offenders.
"a Deta1ied Statement of the Magnifi-
cent Operations of Tremen-
dous Monopoly.
A Monopoly CaIIed no,un.

Special to the Globe.
WASHINGTON. Oct. THE land Office
has 10 information about the extent of the
raids the Montana Improvement COM
pany has been making on government tim
Der, but they have been carrying ON
operations on an extensive scale.
The timber costs them nothing but
the cutting, and they have scared off
smaller rival timber thieves by threatening
to prosecute them for just what they were
themselves doing. AS the Northern Pacific
Railroad company was more than half of
the Improvement company, the former gave
the latter freight rates that no
other timber shippers could get.
and of course the Montana I'M
provement company has had a virtual
monopoly OF the venerable and lucrative
business of stealing from the government.
The Montana improvement company. lin
tied, is an organization Incorporated under
the laws OF Montana having capital stock
| OF 81, 600, 900. The II Northern Pacific Railroad
company holds 81, 900, 100 of the stock, one
share more than half. OF the rest. most of
it is held by Eddy. Hammond e. Co. of
Missoula, Mont. A letter from Attorney
Brewster of the interior department, dated
Feb. 20, 1854, says Of this firm:
1t appears that they obtained permission
from the department of the interior to erect
saw-mills on the reservation (Flathead In
dianS) and to use timber, the stipulation he
ing that so soon as the road was completed to
Portland, Or, they should leave. The road
has long been completed. but the firm insists
or keeping their mills on the reservation
They are running night and day, or were dur
ing the summer and fall, and are getting ont
ties enough to last for some years, besides
saving lumber and using the same in their
business emit oil
available TIMBER
A letter from S. Fl. Williams of Mon
tana to the interior department saws:
''They have from two to three thousand
men here steadily chopping the government
timber and saving it up into lumber and
shingles for their own benefit and pocketing
the proceeds themselves, and if anybody else
place for fire wood, they make a terrible fusl
about1t and put them in states prison.
The further statement is made that the
Northern Pacific railroad charges the Moutang
Improvement company for transporting lum-
Der from Spokane Falls to Endicot S23 per
carload, while all other parties are charged
S47 per carload, and that the Improvement
company threatens to bring about the
PROSECUTION OF THE sAWMILL OWNERS
who cut timber from either government or
railroad land. excepting such as will carry
On their business in SubOrdination to and as
employees of the Improvement company
While to these the said company guarantees
the same immunity for prosecution by the
government which the company asserts has
been pledged to itself. In a letter to Com
missioner Sparks, dated July 25, Secretary
Lamar says:
I shall at once transmit copy of this letteI
indorSing Agent Prosser'S report to the hons
Orable attorney general, accompanied by 8
rPnnpSt a q lxo 111aa to
stop to further operations of the Nontans
improvement company on common sections
surveyed lands, and upon all unsurveye6
lands, leaving the matter of the punishment
OF, or reimbursement for, past depredations
for future consideration, and act under the
date of Aug. % last.
Acting Commissioner Walker held that:
Climber or material may be taken from
public lands only for the construction of
roads, including roadways, bridges, culverts,
trestles, and the like, but cannot be
taken for the erection of stations, freight
houses, fences, sheds or other buildings or
structures. No public timber is per-
mitted to be taken or used for
fuel by any railroad company.
The right of railroad companies to take tim
ber aud other material from public lands is
restricted by laws relating to lands adjacent
to line of road.
This will be construed as meaning that
the companies have permission to take tim
Der and other material along the line of road
in construction and in the Immediate vicin-
ity thereof, or in immediate proximity
thereto. Commissioner Sparks to-day adj
vised Secretary Lamar to institute three
suits against the Montana Improvement
company and the Northern Pacific for
SIX CASES OF STEALING
government timber reported on by Special
Timber Agent NJ. j. Hally. In the first
case the Improvement company had 49,
600. 900 shingles, 10, coo cedar posts and
5000 railroad ties and shipped the
posts and shingles to every town between
Helena, Mont, and Yokoma, W. T., from
March l, 1884, to April 8,
1885. In the second case,
between July, 1882, and July, 1885, the
company cut 5000, 900 feet board measure
of timber and has shipped all but $50, 900
feet to retail dealers and
settlers between Helena and Yokima.
Between June, 1888, and December, 1884,
100, 200 cords of fire wood were cut and
shipped away from one locality; 7,70o
cords of wood going to the Helena Min
ing and Reducing company at Wickes,
Montana, from March, 1888, to July 25,
1885; in another locality, 4, 900, 900 feet of
lumber were cut at various points; Is, 725 ties
were cut and shipped to the Utah & Northern
railroad. In another locality 1865 cords of
fire wood had been cut between April, 1885,
and July, 1885, on a contract calling for
$500 cords Of wood. 1t never seemed to
have occurred to Republican secretaries of
the interior or commissioners of the general
land office to offer any objections to this
wholesale wood stealing.