The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-05-31
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amounts, although there is no law,
as your committee believes, to justi-
fy the state auditor in selling a
single stick of the oak, ash, elm,
Eastwood, etc., except with the land
at public sale. In some cases wood
has been sold as cord wood, although
the officers of the state must have
well understood that when the lands
are SO stripped and nothing left but
the stumps it would be very difficult
to sell it for agricultural lands.
Your committee is informed by
high legal authority that there is no
law which authorizes the sale of hard
wood timber on lands belonging to
this state, and they understand that
the price of oak is rapidly advancing
in consequence of the demand for it
for manufacturing purposes; and
that from the Mississippi river to
the Pacific coast there are no large
supplies of oak timber except in this
state: and that it is in the interest
of this state that all it's hard wood
timber should be carefully looked
after and protected from deprada-
ton. The evidence shows that oak
timber on state lands has recently
been sold for $500 per thousand
while in many parts of the state it
is worth $500 per thousand.
We find that the most cunning
and ingenious practices have been
resorted to to perpetrate these
frauds; for instance, a price would
be offered for the stumpage-which
had probably been estimated at one
fourth it's true amount by the state
officers-which could not properly be
paid by any person not being in the
ring and not knowing the true
amount. This drove out competi-
tion, while the man who was guilty
of the fraud made up for the loss on
what he paid for by the vast amount
he stole of what he did not pay for
UNIVERSITY LANDS.
The statement your committee has
made as to school lands applies with
equal force to the university lands.
That great institution which is at
the head of the public school system
of this state seems to have been
plundered in an equally outrageous
manner. The committee propose,
during the remainder of the session,
to go still more fully into the branch
of the subject. 1t appears that the
timber has been sold in many cases
at prices ranging from 81 to So per
thousand upon an estimated amount
of pine upon the section, and one
witness testifes that where the
and fifty thousand feed cut upon
tract of land, twelve times that
amount had really been taken from
the land, and the state university
had lost the difference. Another in
stance is given where section 81,
township 81, range "a was sold to an
individual at $1.75 per thousand,
while the testimony shows that it
was worth $3.50 per thousand.
SWAMP LANDS.
We pass now to the subject of
swamp lands. These seem to have
been also a prolific field of fraud.
The evidence shows that prominent
lumbermen have large contracts
with the railroad companies, under
which they send men to examine the
state swamp lands and when they
find tracts that are well timbered
and desirable they make application
to the railroad companies, and the
companies then apply to the State
for the land as part of their grant
from the State. AS soon as they get
title to the land they turn it over to
these lumermen at an agreed price
per acre. The tracts of land thus
selected are really not swamp land,
except in technical sense, for pine
does not grow in swamps. In this
way the very choicest part of the
timber lands of the State are culled
out for the benefit of spectators
and the refuse left in the hands of
the State. Not satisfied with this
ingenious scheme, these men 90 still
further. 1t is in evidence that they
do not place their deeds on record
and the title to the land appears to
still remain in the railroad company
and the land thus escapes taxation.
These lands are some of them COW
cred with a magnificent growth of
pine timber. In some cases a forty
acre tract will have on it from three
to four thousand dollars worth of
pine. One witness testifies that it is
useless to attempt to contest the right
OF the purchaser, because the state
officers appear to be in sympathy with
the lumbermen. Your committee on
this point are not able to speak au-
thoritatively, but trust the matter
Will be subject of future investiga-
tiOn.
&c Supply Co.,