The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-06-03
UNITED STATES FOREST LANDS.

 Taken Away-Need of Speedy Action What Can be Done. Professor William H. Brewer of thls city is a member of the committee ap- pointed by the National Academy of Science upon the inauguration of for est policy for the forested lands of the United States The committee has made report to the Secretary of the Interior, and the report contains the following:
 THE UNRESERvED FOREST
 LANDS.
 The laws now in force under which the timber and timber lands of the public domain are disposed of have proved inadequate and demoralizing in practice; and the repeal or amendment Of every one of them has been urged year after year by successive commis- sioners of the general land office and secretaries of the interior, and it Is not an exaggeration to say that, inviting fraud and peculation, they have de- based the public conscience and de- prived the government of millions of dollars.
 The act of June 8, 1878 (2O St2t., SS), known generally as the act to e,low the cutting of timber on mineral lands, permits citizens of the United States and other persons, bona fide residents of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, New Mexi- co, Arizona, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Idaho and Montana, and all other mineral districts of the United States, to cut and remove for building, agricultural, mining and oth- CT domestic purposes, any trees growing on mineral lands, subject to such rules, and regulations as the secretary of the interior may prescribe for the protec- tion of the timber and undergrowth on such lands. This act, which was loose- ly and unSkillfully drawn and abounds in indefinite phrases, has been subject to such varying and conflicting deci- sions, both official and judicial, as to the true construction to be placed on the expression mineral lands" that 1t practically gives away all the timber In regions in which any mineral lands are situated, and has been fitly described as the greatest gift ever made by congress.
 It has been construed to authorize the free and unlimited cutting of tim- Der on any reputed mineral lands with
 
 ruling of the secretary of the interior that no trees less than eight inches in diameter can be felled and that no tim Der taken under it's provisions can be exported out of the state or territory where 1t is cut. Allowing settlers and miners to provide economically for their actual wants, it has without doubt stimulated wasteful consumption of timber beyond actual needs and has led to wanton destruction. Little attention has been paid to the regulations of the secretary, and all land in mineral dis. tricts has been held by owners of saw mills, mines and traffic lines, without survey or examination, to be mineral land and therefore subject to its provi- sions. Under this act companies em- ploying large forces of men have been formed to cut and remove the timber from so called mineral lands and ship 1t to their mills, lumber dealers mill own CTS and railroad contractors have cut timber under it's provisions for com mercial purposes, and lumber cut on lands held to be mineral by the men who, plunder the public domain under the protection of this act has been sent by rail to cities in distant states.
 Individual avarice and corporate greed have vied in accepting this boun- ty offered to them by the government, and the most valuable timber accessible to railroads has already been cut from all reputed mineral lands. A conspicu- ous and notorious example of what this act has accomplished is seen in South Dakota, where the forested lands among the Black Hills, although only a small part of them have been surveyed, have been held by the mining compa- nies of the region to be mineral lands; and for years these companies, under Ehe provisions of this act, have con- sun1ed large quantities of timber and firewood without being subjected to any charge In this region, which affords a fair example of what is going on in other mineral regions, no attention has been paid to the regulations of the Sec retary of the Interior, under which tim ber less than eight inches in diameter can not be cut; and there is now pend- ing a suit in the United States court by the United States against the Home stake Mining company for timber cut before 1891 under eight inches in dian- eter, amounting to about $688,000. Spec ial agents of the general land office sev- eral years ago estimated that the value of the timber cut at that time by this company amounted to between two and three million dollars, but owing to ig- norance as to the nature of the land and uncertainties of the law, no suit has been brought to recover the value of any part of it cut from trees above eight inches in diameter.
 This company has built and operates railroad nearly forty miles long into the public domain for the purpose of bringing timber and fuel to its mines from land which has not yet been shown to be mineral, and is destroying the forest as far back from this line of railroad as timber can be easily and profitably moved. It is a matter of common report that millions of feet of lumber cut on the public domain in the Black Hills under the authority of this act have also been shipped by rail and sold in Omaha, although the govern ment has received no compensation whatever from the companies carrying on these operations. To this act can also be traced the destruction of im- mense forests in Colorado, Nevada, Ar izona and Montana, and whenever 1t con ha made apDlicable the evil results