St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-04-17

| alleged lawyers in tho secretary'5 ONCE
during the past four years rs panacea
for your debilltated credulity.
| Next come the logging operations on
the Fond du Lac Indian reservation.
| This Is sort of private picnic, but III
the way of plumber undoubtedly exceeds
| anything on record for its size. 1T has
| been carried on for years with pro-
| gramme unaltered by change in admin
istration. 1t remained, however, for the
| Harrison administration to furnish the
| biggest "bluff," followed by the most
abject and complete back-down. The
| past administration was all admins
| tration of game-runneTs in fullest sense;
| and game-runners tOot their horns
| loudly and necessarily until the game
| reaches the pass, then they cease so
| suddenly that they sometimes suck
| wind in their endeayor to recall note
| or two which may have been too pro-
| longed.
| You will doubtless remember that the
newspapers teened TO overlooking with
| this "butf' when it was first put up by
the interior department The logs were
all to be sized; the lumbermen and the
| Indian farmer were to be arrested and
| prosecuted, and HI generally was to
| be raised To men who have known
| Farmer Stack for years, as the writer
has, the peculiar smile which played
| upon his good looking features during
| the heaviest part of this blizzard bluff
| portended much. 1t was not worried
| or excited smile, but cheerful and
| cOmplacent one; just such one. i'll
| fact, as he has often been known to
wear when, loaded with "fours," he has
! successfully wlthstood the onslaught OF
| the 'bobtail" worker. 1t said i'll so
many words, There is no danger; they
are only running game"
Public knowledge Of these matters
! goes no farther than the information
| gained through the sense of hearing,
| and in this case it ceased contempt
| raneously with the cessation OF horn
| blowing, but it is generally understood
| that the game runners sent out to InTeo-
| tigate the matter seized few logs and
| telegraph poles which some poor sucker
| had cut and probably paid for. and re-
| ported that the main cut had passed
| into the hands of innocent purchas-
erS;" for this reason they are Teputed
| to have recommended that no action be
taken to recover either the logs or their
| value, or proceedings instituted against
| the farmer. Further than this every
thing indicates Selah.
AT this point wish to remark that
the special telegram to st. Paul paper
few days ago, which sought to lay the
blame of this Fond du Lac matter to the
officers OF the Duluth land Office, was a
| misdirected shaft, evidently directed by
some miserable officeseeker who did not
know what he was about. Those officers
have no jurisdiction in such matters. 1t
all lies i'll the hands of the interior de-
partment and its spies (9 This fact
may possibly constitute one reason why
treSDaSS upon government land has of
late been such an unfruitful source of
reuenue to the national treasury.
And now. at the risk Of taxing ere
dulity beyond limit. must say that set
Element for treSpasS upon state land is
more easily accomplished than it is with
the national government. But it is
clear that not every one understands
how to do it, else the traffic would not
be confined, as it is, TO so few successful
operators. When man cuts school
section or other state land without first
buying and paying for the timber he
never puts mark on the logs until after
they are run out of the country in which
they are cut. When he gets ready to
nave them scaled, as he sometimes does
when the treSpaSS becomes known, he
takes all agreed-upon party and goes
and submits to scale or such proper
ton of the logs as have not
been marked in the meantime or
run further on. In this way he
gets So or ST timber at about
% cents a thousand. This is not only
rankest robbery of the resources of the
state, but it stops the sale of state TIM
Der in the localities infested by these
sharks. A man cannot pay 81 for tim
Der and compete in the market with the
man who pays only so cents. People
outside OF the combination can't buy
state timber any way-at least not
within easy haul. These old timers who
have made fortunes out OF state pine,
both by paying and not paying for it,
will outbid them.- They will bid the
timber up to So or Sc per thousand, and
for 81. How is this done? Why, by
manipulation of the scale-getting
scale OF 2,0J0,00o on 5000, 900 tract, for
instance. An Old state Scaer here says
that he lost his job some years ago be-
cause he insisted that 5000, 900 had been
cut from certain school section after
he had received several hints that
100000 scale would be about the
proper caper.
Here is an instance which occurred
this winter: A certain lumberman cut
school section, and the logs, unmarked,
are in the river. He is reported to have
o''iu w q iilou WIN hilGW llS Hdu uOG
bought the timber. that he was to paw
the state 81 per thousand for 1T when
scaled. Ii he succeeds in getting one
half of the logs scaled, he will break his
record for generosity i'll such cases by
paying 80 cents per thousand. The real
humor In these transactions lies in the
fact that these sharks get their log
ging sites without putting up a cent of
money, land afterwards-in some cases
pay the state miserable pittance outof
what they receive from sale of the logs.
do not believe the auditor, personally,
is mixed mp i'll any of these schemes;
but 1t Is difficult to understand how
they can work so smoothly all the time
unless some one in his office is.
Now, you may think that with the
soft snap Minnesota loggers seem to
have, they ought to be satisfied: if Won
do, you betray an ignorance which is
not only disgraceful, bat is perfectly ex-
cusable. For, in ali fairness, they ought
to be content But they are not. Ever
since the government has been sending
out special agents enough to enable
them to get pine cheaper than they can
buy 1t from settlers, who ask from 81 to
$3.50 per thousand, the lumbermen have
gone back on homesteaders and pre-
emptOrS entirely. They have secured
the repeal of the pre-emption law, and
obtained insertion into the homestead
law OF clause requiring fourteen
months, instead of six, residence before
purchase can be made. But as this
did not put the quietuS on their whilom
friend the settler, they want the en-
tire piue land district set off into a for
est reserve, reserve against the settler
and the poor man, but not against the
wealthy lumberman; for they seek to
do hot hn
permit, and inspected by their new and
latest friends, the special agents or gov
ernment police(9. This, they calculate.
Will etfectually shut out the settler. and
as the settler is the only person who,
under present conditions, ever reports
their Illegal cuttings, they mathematics
that they would under such circum-
stances be comparatively safe. This
no doubt accounts for the surprising
fact that no lnmberman in Minneapolis,
St. Cloud. Sank Rapids, Duluth, or, in
fnn 4l.n..s fns l.r,.,