Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1888-05-16
WHO Is

NlAeu LDc EStml- weekly lH SO cOuIlQueU, IL WI
be charged for at the rate Of $500 per annun
WHO Ii RESPONSIBLE.
THE MINER was moved by considera
tions OF the general interest on yester
day morning to take patriotic ground
on the timber cutting business, asid
from all political considerations, for it i
something like the tariff, a sectional is
sue, SO to speak. So we are sorry to SCI
our esteemed evening contemporary, tn
Inter Mountain, running the question
into politics, as it does in the following
i'll advised and ill timed paragraph :
Our Excellent contemporary ventured this
morning to publish q mild criticism of the
land Office rules affecting timber cutting
1t rejoices the Inter Mountain exceedingly
to observe this evidence OF a correct under
standing OF the public needs. But what
about the administf alton which endorses
the PRONUNCIATION of such rules and author.
lzes the prosecutions now pending under
them?
And what about the administration
that adopted them ? The special rule
referred to which we criticised most
severely was Section 16, of 1882, when Mr..
Teller was Secretary of the Interior,
by the appointment Of Mr.. Garfield, and
then acting under the Arthur admins
tration. This section, upon which we
had occasion to lay our seyerest structures,
was issued from Mr.. TeIIer's office, Sep
TENDER 10, 1882, and was approved Sep
TENDER 81, 1882. And Mr.. Teller served
in the same capacity for some three
years afterwards; served in fact until he
found that he could not secure control of
ths grazing grounds on the Crow Indian
reservation in this Territory, through
n Blake, for a certain Colorado cattle
syndicate, when he sought a surer thing
and after some Legislative ma~nipulations
at Denver, took his seat in the United
States Senate, March 4, 1885.
~
While we deplore the disposition of our
esteemed evening contemporary to try to
make political capital out of this timber
business, which involves a matter most
material to the development of Montana,
regardless of party, we will accommo-
date it. But we must decline to enter
into a discussion of the merits of the par
ticular cases now pending in the Terri
torial courts for the very reason obvious
to any but an opaquely obtuse mind, that
it is not within che province of a news
paper to publish anything which might
even tend to bias the minds of men who
may be called upon a jury to determine
the evidence in any given case. To discuss
the land laws and their application un-
der the rules, comes within the legitimate
scOpe of a public journal, and we do not
shirk the responsibility within the limits
public policy, and aside from.the juris-
diction Of the courts in pending cases.
~
Now, we have heard much about the
administration of the affairs Of the Land
Office. The orators and organs in opposi-
ton to the present administration have
made this subject the burden of their ar
guments, only occasionally recurring to
tariff by way of recreation. The fact
Is that it was under Republican rule that
the land laws were so laxIy admins
tered that it was necessary that it
should be remedied. ALI reforms take an
extreme tendency, and SO it came to pass
that one Sparks was set up to perform
this work. He went to such extremes
hat MIR. Lamar let him out. Since then
The department has modified many of his
and. in the light of experience,
nay modify many more. Among them,
We trust, will be the timber rules. But
he department is not wholly c%ensurable.
Congress must share the responsibility
With the department which can but in ]
,erpret and enforce the laws as found on
he statute books.
~ /.
The fact is no administration of either :
'arty has had any adequate idea of the
'haracter of this Western country. Rely ,
ng upon the advise Of special agents .
Who must make some sort of showing. ,
omething like the salaried spoilers upon
abroad trains, to make it appear to the
apartment that they are earning their /,
er diem, the head officials act, of course. ;,
7ithin the limits of the law. Oftimes :
minds of the lawmakers are biased +
y the reports of department heads, !
Tho act ON the advice of the special
gents. One administration has no ad-
over another in this matter. ).
hey may all act honestly and conscien- !
lously on bad advices. In the case of
eiler, there was not, however, this ex- '
use. He was a Colorado man and famil- :
II with Western conditions and did not =
eed to depend on the word of special
gents. And he is the very man who is
led the code of rules published by the p
tier Mountain, and which it SO severely c.
p;
* al
And by the way, while we are about it
Q would like to inquire of our esteemed
rening contemporary if it has forgotten r
hen its own party interfered in the al
of the Utah & Northern by seiz- ii
g the ties when this great camp was al
ruggling to c u railway commune
tion with the outside world ? The Re-
lblicans inaugurated this policy and :.
piled the worst phases of restriction to =.
g development Of this camp. This was
out 1873, if we remember correctly.
9 might enumerate examples of the
publican policy on the land and tim
r business, but this is all that is neces- CT
ry to show that the Democrats may, in he
measure, be following the bad exam in
ss set them by their predecessors.
Dur esteemed contemporary may char 90
- THl