The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1893-10-26
OCT g. 1898

every body in Minnesota remem-
beers how near the government
came to having set apart about
5one-third Of all the lands in the
northern part Of the State in one
of these forest reservations. It
was stopped. Senators Washburn
and Davis were on hand to protest,
and did what [ could to prevent
IT by giving the matter publicity,
and telling the people what they
might expect. No one can yet
tell of any advantage it would
have been to the State to have all
the lands in the north tied up I'M
til somebody came along and re-
leased them. f. 2.
/.
But to continue toward the
sequel. A great many reserva-
tions have been made. The people
have protested but it has been in
vain. The lands adjoining the
settlements where they live, and
which they hope to have seen set
tied upon and communities built
up, have been set aside by a power
created under this fateful section
~. There are here in Washington
the headquarters Of a squad of
cranks calling themselves the
American Forestry Association.
The most of them are honest and
sincere, but it is this very honesty
and sincerity that have offered an
opportunity for the charlatans to
use them. These men have been
urging the forestry reserves.
They hung around congress all
night until the section "a was
added to the bill. They made it
appear that these reservations
would be useful. But as time
proceeded it was found that one of
the number was made assistant
commissioner of the general land
office. He is a very smooth citizen
and he has the honesty of purpose
which has convinced Secretary
.Hoke Smith that he is all right
and since he has been in office
there has been a large number of
reservation made, about all in fact
that will be allowed, the people
having become alert as they did
in the Minnesota case, and have
their representatives ready to pro-
test against any more reservations.
8 n X * 800 s.. s 81.
A little more sequel. There
was recently reported from the
committee on public lands in the
house a bill granting the secretary
of the interior to sell all auction
timber on these reservations. He
was also authorized to dispose of
the lands which had no timber
upon them or which could not be
classed as timber lands. This ap-
parently means that the schemers
had about located all the mineral
on these lands and were ready to
gobble them up. Since they have
become reservations, no person
has been allowed to prospect upon
them or even to settle upon them.
The average man has left, them
alone as he has felt that he could
not get title to any portion of
them if he should make his SETTLE
ment. Not so with the schemer.
He probably knew where the
minerals were before the reserva-
tions were made, or has since
found them. He had to have the
land reserved in order to prevent
everybody from having a chance
to get them. The land is now
tied up. It is time to let 90 of it
and let the man with money or
men with money who have been
engineering the scheme from the
first get control. The sale Of tim
Der on these lands by auction in
the first place means that the poor
men will have no show. The rich
lumbermen will bid it off, and the
people for whom, OF IN whose al
legged interest, the law was first
enacted will not be able to obtain
any of it except at the increased
price which the capitalist is dis
posed to give it to him. After the
timber is taken off the land is no
longer valuable for timber and
must be disposed Of. If it con-.
tains mineral the capitalist will
probably be ready to grab it,
while those lands which have been
found not valuable for timber and
where there are rich mineral de-
posts will be gobbled up in much
the same way. At least it looks
as if such a thing were possible
under the, bill recently reported