The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1904-10-01

place, and the cost to the state wa, was $500
in expenses in addition to the loss above
| of trespass in Aitkin county was brought
to my attenti9n ! was very faf te TO c,
! after Selling the timber and ADVERTISED
the same for sale: At the outset Mr. I;
suppie 81 to 6s wh@ and
| interested only to the amount of the nner-
| chandise he had furnished to the tres.
| settlement 1 refused his offer and, as
| have said, proceeded, to comply with the
could receive for the timber was s., 800.
which was offered by A.: Y. Merrill Of
M6nneap0s IN and S5ged h to sell bd for
offer, besides tn. the expenses which amount
eT to 'e Of 9hs knd clio sew
When I left the auditors ot1ce there
were only two unsettled cases OF tres
pass One Of my last official acts t.,, was
letter urging him to commence action
at, once against one of the parties, =
Sut until lnG about
two months ago and Mr.. Johnson was
given the credit for having the suit in
Court Gives the ''Mea,sare of DAM
In this connection I refer to the State
o vs. Sheyp werep Gha
court has adopted and repeatedly applied
the following rule in "a, acti Safa OF ttespass
willful trespasser, the measure of dam
ages is the full value of the property at
the time and place Of demand L.; put liz II
trespasser-that is where he honestly and
reasonably belieyed that he had the legal
Of Ia iS the value of the
the condition it was tal1en.'"
auditors i:s the first four years the price Of
stumpage was very low. Every one
knows that, there was depression in the
1897 and 1898. In the eight years I held
six general sales Of timber, I held no
sales in 1895 and 1892 and the am9pmt
tfe taGm enG per a S?s
while in all the previous history Of the
state ten times more timber, was sold
84O,992 was realized. I think the figures
quoted amply demonstrate and prove to
the satisfa elton of all fair-m'n 15 men
were not neglected during my admins
tration. have no hesitation in saying
that had the states timber been han
as during. my administration, the per
manent school and the permanent un1ver-
sitX funds would be at least FIVE million
Pine Land investigating Committees
Work.
The state legislat ure of 1893 appointed a
pine Land, investigating committee for
state timber stumpage, transactionss
which had taken place prior to 1895 and
provided it with a fund for the purpose
penses. 1t was supposed that this COM
1nittee covered the field thoroughly.
6ns Which the puBlic examner may
curing prior to 1895, falls with more
force pon this pine lang nnXe nn
The names Of the members Of the
above committee are as follows: Hon.
fEa'' a: 7. Eaton Hon. C. F. Staples.
Grath.
1859 specially provided that all timber
estimates made prior to the passage OF
the bill were null and void. This made
ton to Old matters as the appvopriatlon
made for the purpose by the legislature
only admitted of the state "a aud td en-
they were necessarily kept busy looking
after cuttings which were made under
ae au her en- Of old caSes were
cuttings had not been paid for, the facts
were noted and wherever evidence could
be Of we1 there ara verv
few cases to which the public examiner
calls attention. where there Is the slight
the most reckless and misleading collec-
ton Of statements ever issued by a pub
lie official. His gross. misinterpretation
Of such terms as Mew 6s re-
strues to mean that cutting was mado
Of state timber, and follows with tho in
a ao3 paa feT "a. and the Similar construc
ton he places on the terms cut al!
around cut on south and east sids;"
cutting was not paid for, indicates his
supreme ignorance Of the. matters upon
which he presumes to sit in judgment:
knowledge Of the lumber business could
have informed him that the term new
cutting means that the timber never
ana SO south or o Cuttings a' ali around"
means that the timber on lands adjoin-
ing the state lands had been cut and
that in consequence the state timber
was in danger of fire originating In the
"slashings' on these adjoining lands
In one Of his former reports Mr.. John
son makes great ado over the fact that
bark marks were not contained In sever
al Of the permits when the same were
I have to say IN reply is that lumber
man who would dump his logs into q
or lake 6G WITHOUT be psEbeaf far
common sense could the logs be identified
at the boom II they were not properly
marked? The letters MIN must be
stamped on all logs cut on state lands
and as matter Of self protection. II for
no other reason, the owner must af1lx
some other mark to enable him to dis
tingush and claim his property.
It has been asserted that ought to
have asked the legislature for an addi-
tional appropriation. 1t was all we could
do to hold the appropriation at $12O
to say nothing about increasing It, Out
of that $4,000 we had to pay for apprais-
ing, advertising and selling state lands,
caring for the mineral output and pro-
tecting the states timber.
When Mr.. Johnson's first report was
turned over to Attorney General Douglas.
and that conscientious official was urged
by both the governor and tho public ex-
aminer to commence suits, am reliably
informed that Mr. Douglas said there
was nothing in Johnscn's report to base
an action on. I might say more on this
subject. but will forbear for the present.
During my administration I exercised
every care to protect the states timber
and realized the highest prices obtain-
able, and never sold a stick of timber
save at public sale as provided by law:
No Partially was shown any man OF
firm by me. I treated all alike. That
made will not deny. put reiterate that
IN every instance acted for the best IN.
terests of the state according to the best
lar collected for trespass, whether it was
fxryNg III 10 or al md