St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-04-17
STEALING OF PINE.
How the State and Govern
ment Are Plundered of
Millions.
Some OF the Farcical Inves-
LEGATIONS Ordered at
Washington.
School Land Timber Ruth
lessly Sharked by the
LOggerS.
Various Schemes for Robbing
the People Of Their
Heritage.
To the Editor of the Globe.

pine ldnu frauds, lltLlo information OIL
he subject OF how these frauds and
trespasses are conducted and settled for,
both with the state and the national
government, might not be amiss; and ii
you think the matter of sufficient in
terest to warrant space III the columns
OF your esteemed journal, you are at
liberty to publish the following instances
of the modus operandi of lumbermen
who do not buy, but prefer rather to
take, stumpage at their own price and
on their own terms OF payment.
The first thing to be considered is the
fact that people who are not ION the
inside'' can judge of the good or bad
things of this world only by samples
which leak through the carefully handled
sieve of public service, and so. although
what l am about to give you are only
samples, yet they are such perfect
ones of their kind, and SO suggestive in
themselves. that they may, without
much stretch of Imagination, be taken
as pretty true index OF the whole un-
written volume.
Not chronOlogically, but rather in
order of magnitude, comes the Big
Fork and Rainy river trespasS. You
doubtless remember the howl which
went up over this alleged cutting of
government timber, and how the secre-
tary of the interior sent out a whole
squad of special agents to investigate
it; but l do not believe the public gen.
orally were ever fully informed as to
how the investigation came out or how
the matter was finally closed up. 10
start with, when the figurariYe hair be-
gan to rise on the secretary'S back like
bristles on the back of the wild boar,
the cutting was all laid at the door or
Canadian lumbermen. but why, and for
what reason, is not known. because
everybody hereabOuts knows that Can
adam mill men and jobberS do not
log III Minnesota, and never have
on government land. They can
buy their logs from Minnesota tres
paSserS cheaper thon they can take
chances. 1t might be that whoever
started the report that Canadians were
doing the stealing did so with the view
of protecting Minnesota lumbermen by
permitting the odium to remain on the
other side of the border in case inVeSti-
cation developed the expected class of
Minnesota rascalS and politicians who
are usually favored with immunity in
such cases.
l do not believe it has ever been pub
llcly announced from any source that
Canadians did not commit the treSpaSS.
The first investigation Of this trespaSS
was made by Special Agent Robertson,
and things were pretty exciting about
the time he returned 10 Duluth to make
his report. But it seems that the report
he made was unsatisfactory. 1t must
have hit either too close or too hard
somewhere, because nothing ever came
of it, and he was Immediately trans
ferred to Utah or some other place
thousand miles or more away,
Notwithstanding the alleged fact that
he was a relative of the then secre-
tary of the interior. II the word of a
certain Minnesota lumDerman can be
respected, Agent Robertson was re-
moved or transferred upon the demand
of that lumberman himself. The query
which forces itself upon us at this
juncture is this: Had The honorable
secretary changed his mind as to the
qualifications and efficiency of his agent
i'll handling trespasS cases, or had he
modified his intentions as to what
should be done with the treSpaSserS? |
will not attempt to answer the question.
Suffice it to say that shortly afterwards
another expedition was equipped and
sent out under the leadership of another
agent of the department, but whether
this last expedition was actually piloted
by some employe of some Minnesota
records, and is therefore not known to
the infOrmation-seeki public. In due
time, however, the exploring party re-
turned and the agent made his report,
which must have been accepted. be-
cause the treSpaSS was settled without
further trouble.
During all the time occupied by the
two investigations newspapers all over
the country were filled with eXagger-
'ated reports of this great deSpOliatiOn
of public timber, and flaming headlines
now and then enormously announced
progress Of the expedition and evidence
which it had come upon of the illegal
cutting of million upon millions of gov
eminent pine OH the northern boundary.
| use the words Exaggerated" and ''er-
roneously" because the probity of pub
lie officials in high places must not be
doubted, and also because the grand
finale shows that there were 10 grounds
for the report that anybody had been
cutting timber at all; at least, not
enough to worry over. The grand finale
alluded to is ali summed up in the fol-
lowing, from which L omit names of the
lumbermen therein mentioned:
UNITED STATES LAND OFFICE, ! q.
DULUTH, Mimi, Dec. %, 1891.
(Duplicate.)
Received of -, of Duluth. two hun
dred seventy-nne S9-100 dollars, in set
Element for 1913, 951 feet of logs, the total
amount, as it appears, of timber cut by
said -, or by -, during the logging
seasons of 1888, 1889 and 1890 from the
following government lands, to wit:
Uusurveyed lands in TIP. 81 N, r.. 81
W.; seq neI nw4 ne4 and nw4 nw4
sec. 20; sw4 sell sec. II, L. 60 N, II.
10 W.; sw4 sw4 e15 se4 sec. 81; VIZ
swI sec. 81, Up. 90 n, r. 20 land So
ne4 neL SCI sec. %, Up. 81 N, r. % w.
Reported by Sp'l Agents - and
-, Nov. IA and 26 and Dec. 3 and Is,
1890 Settlement received under direc-
ton of the Hon. Commissioners letter
up" 1921, Dec. 2. 1891.
[S279.S9l [Siguedl S. l.. FRAZER,
Receiver.
AS before remarked, if the credulity
of the people is adequate to allow Gre
dence to the statement of a certain lum-
herman. he, so he himself says, went to
Washington and made the department
glad to take even the amount above
mentioned. He is reputed to have said
that the chief Of the proper division
was ordered to settle with him upon his
own terms. But whether he lies or not
in his Boosting cuts no figure i'll the
case, for the fact seems to remain that
the mountain went to Mahomet, and
rode about Duluth with him in a car
rage when he came out last summer to
inspect the Northwest, when he had
done so much for some citizens OF, I'm
der the guise of improved public land
service.
If. i'll your amaZement at this come
down from ten or fifteen million feet
of pine (Which great many in position
to know still believe to have been cut
to less than 100000 feet. the basis upon
which settlement was made. you should
also wonder why Special Agent Rob
ertson was transferred. if this was all
there was to the matter. | would ad-
wise you to cease both Immediately, or
you will betray the fact that you neither
practiced law before the interior de-
partment, nor had any business before
it during the past four years; -and If you
faaI inoradulnus w0uld recommend