The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-06-03

bered and has suffered more than most other parts of the United states from forest fires and injudicious cutting.
 The United States has proved It's ina bility to enforce the rules and regula- tions established from time to time by the Secretary of the Interior to protect it's interests in its own timber lands; and attempts made to recover the value of timber unlawfully cut from the pub lie domain have failed through the ann biguity and effectiveness of the various acts under which 1t was hoped that ao- tual settlers might secure forest sup plies, and because the sentiment of majority of the people in the public land states with regard to the public domain, which they consider the exclu- siVe property of the people of those states and territories, does not sustain the government in its efforts to protect its own property, juries, when rare in- dictments can be obtained, almost inva- riably failing to convict depredators.
 It has long been apparent to all disln- terested persons familiar with the working of the land laws of the United States that the acts which we have de- scribed should be repealed and unless this is done it Is evidently only matter of comparatively short time when all the valuable timber will have been de- stroyed on the unreserved public lands or will have passed into the hands of individuals. Unless, therefore, the gov ernment is prepared to abandon control of the water supply of many streams needed for irrigation, and to see the whole of its unreserved territory west of the one hundredth meridian stripped of its valuable timber and agricultural and mining interests crippled, it must contemplate the adoption of some poli- cy like that which, after a fair trial, has proved successful and profitable in Canada, and under which all public lands in the western states and terri tories more valuable for their forests than for agriculture or the production of minerals can be reserved to protect the flow of rivers and to produce timber to supply the needs of agriculture and mining and the demands of commerce. This canA be accomplished by with drawing now from sale and entry all | public lands more valuable as timber | lands than for other purposes through | tie ItpGdl u lIlS val iOuS dClS which timber and timber lands can be acquired by individuals and corpora tions. Such reserved lands should then be surveyed as rapidly as possible, in order that their true character can be accurately defined and such parts of | them as may be found less valuable as forest lands than for other purposes opened to sale and entry, while the re- mainder should be held permanently by l the general government and admins l tered by competent forest bureau for the benefit of the people in the whole country. A scheme for the withdrawal of the forest lands of the public domain from sale, for their survey, and for their administration in such a manner
 that actual settlers, prospectors and
 the owners of mining claims may ob-
 tain free and abundant supplies of tim
 Der for their actual needs, and that commerce may be supplied with forest
 products, will be found in the draft of | the bill marked No. 3 attached to this report. It's passage, if these forest lands are wisely administered, will in- sure the permanency of many water ways in the arid states and territories; | it will enable agricultural settlers and
 the owners of mining claims to obtain
 under protection of the law such forest supplies as they may actually reed for
 their personal use; and it will compel
 great corporations controlling mines,
 traffic lines and sawmills to buy from l the government at public auction, in
 such quantities as they may require,
 the timber which they now take under l one pretext or another and generally without payment
 ADDITIONAL NATIONAL PARKS.
 Parts of two forest reserves contain features of supreme natural beauty,
 and can best be preserved for the en- I joyment and instruction of the world l by creating them national parks and governing them under the rules and regulations which have proved success full in protecting the Yellowstone Ma l tional Park. The first of these is the
 upper slopes of Mount Ranier, in Wash ington, with its glaciers, it's alpine meadows clothed with flowers, and the fringe of forest which maintains pre-
 carious foothold on the steep ridges be- low the line of it's perpetual snows
 This mountain is one of the highest and
 most beautiful in North America, and outside of Alaska it's glaciers are unri- I valed in magnitude and interest in the United States. Memorials have been presented to congress by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geological Society oi America, the Sierra club, and the Apa-
 lachian Mountain club favoring the es-
 tablishment of this national park, and
 an act setting aside certain lands for ii was passed by the Fifty-fourth con-
 gress at it's second session; but the bill by extending to it the mineral-land
 laws, might have destroyed its scenic value, and it did not receive executice sanction.
 The second spot which we believe
 should be made into a national park is | that portion of the Grand Canyon Re serve in Arizona which is immediately
 adjacent to and includes the walls ot
 the canyon itself. These two localities l Mount Rainier in Washington and the I Grand Canyon of the Colorado in Ari-
 zona, are each in it's particular way un-
 surpassed in interest. Their natura
 wonders should be preserved without
 further defacement than Is necessary tc make them easily accessible to the peo-
 pie; and unless they can be strictly
 guarded against fires, their scenic value | will he earioI1s1v irOpaired A. tbie