The Teton peak-chronicle. [volume] (St. Anthony, Idaho) 1904-1952, 1905-04-20

and vested interests which only
await the completion of the system
OF public surveys to be perfected
into titles.
am making strenuous effort
to extend and complete the public
surveys over this very portion of
Idaho, in order that the settlers
may be enabled to acquire title.
You will readily understand that
unless the public lands are surveyed
settlers hesitate to cast their lot up-
on them not knowing how soon
they may be able to perfect their
title in the interest of themselves
and their families.
Last year considerable part of
the money set aside for the survey
of public lands in Idaho was re-
turned to the treasury because that
the surveying contracts were not
let, and the money was not ex-
hausted. This was through a mis-
taken policy that the surveys should
not be extended until after the
settlement upon each township.
The correct rule is that the survey
should proceed the settlers as an
inducement thereto.
hope to secure such changes in
this policy as will place Idaho more
nearly upon an equal footing with
her sister states. You will be
surprised to learn that 55 per cent
of the public lands of Idaho are
unsurveyed, while in California
only 7 per cent remain unsurveyed.
In Colorado 6 per cent, in Wyo-
ming and in Washington II. It
is evident that Idaho is at a dis
advantage in the inducements
which it can offer to settlers in
this particular.
AS to the climate of the proposed
reserve, there is no more delightful
or beneficial climate in the United
States. 1t is within the influence
of the Japan current. which results
in long seasons of warm weather.
The country is one that needs no
irrigation, being within the humid
region, and with an ample snow
fall which goes off early enough to
allow for the cultivation and
ripening of crops.
To one unused to that section of
the country the land might seem to
be sterile and lack those qualities
that insure the production of crops.
but to those who live there and
know the facts, the land is as
fertile as that of any other section of
the United States and responsed to
cultivation in the most satisfactory
manner.
All men do not desire to live on
open prairies or low valleys.
There is fair percentage of the
people that prefer to make their
home in the mountains and that
know how to make those homes
productive and prosperous. The
field of choice should be left open
to them. The people surrounding
this section of the country and who
are expecting in part to inhabit it.
protest against the creation of the
forest reserve or any part of it, and
they do SO, not from a spirit of
opposition. nor from desire of
opportunity to defraud the govern
ment, or violate the law or its
intent, but because they want it
left open for settlement which will
contribute to the business prosper
ity of the country, widening its
borders and broadening the field
for the extension of its enterprises.
The area proposed to be with
drawn constitutes more than half
the area of Shoshone county and
leaves only narrow strip of the
county on the west, averaging
about 10 miles in width and 60
miles in length. Aside from this
strip of land there remains only
that portion of the county covered
by the Occur d'Alene mining dis