The Greeley tribune., 1906-02-01
A Case of Mastery Inactivity.


Let US look at the business end of
mat proposition Other things be-
sides bees have business ends. For a
number Of years the president of the
ter!Ur and the commissioner of the
general land Office have been trying to
impress upon congress. without sue
cess, the necessity OF repeating the
timber and stone act. l want to give
the exact facts The president, in De-
cember, 1892, more than two years
ago, called the attention of congress in
the strongest possible language to the
necessity OF doing something to stop
the frauds and depredations upon the
pubic domain under the timber and
stone act The secretary said in his
annual report more than two years
THE timber and stone act will, if
not repealed or radically amended re-
suit ultimately in the complete de-
struction Of the timber on the unap-
propriated and unreserved public
lands"
l find these words in the report Of
the senate committee on the public
lands, and the date is February 19,
1T can be plainly seen that all the
valuable timber lands: of the United
states viii be owned by spectators
within three years if the opportunity
TO acquire them at $2.55 an acre IS
That was February 10. 1903. 1t is
now pretty close to February 10, 1905,
and one year from that date the three
years will be exhausted and all the
timber land viii be gone according to
this official statement.
Has the bill been repealed? No!
Has the house of representatives
waste of the public property under the
timber and stone act? No!
They have done nothing whatever to
stop the abuses and frauds constantly
being committed under that act.
President Sees the Necessity.
Again the following year the presi-
dent in his message to congress made
substantially the same recommends
tions. They were reiterated by the
secretary of the interior. The senate
mended a bill to repeal the timber and
stone act and the senate passed the
bill in the last session of congress. 1t
went to the public lands committee of
the house of representatives. Y. Il.
walker appeared before that commit
tee and waved his magic wand and
the bin out of eighteen members of
the committee. Two votes! And the
bin is lying there in that committee
yet.
waiting for anything, or for anybody
to do anything, they passed a resolu-
tion in the public lands committee of
the house continuing this whole sub
ject over Until the next session OF
The next session Of congress will
OF the expiration of the three years
within which the senate committee
told, congress that all the timber land
would be gone unless they got action.
In the two years that have expired
since the president has called the at
tention of congress to that timber and
stone law there have been located under
the timber and stone act over 3,OOO,-
600 acres of timber land, the greater
part of it the magnificent timber OF
the northwest, which, according to the
report of the secretary of the interior
and the commissioner of the general
land office, is worth anywhere from
500 to 800 an acre for the mere value
or the stumpage, to say nothing OF the
young timber or the land itself.
Four Million Dollar Loss.
y other words, as a result of the
deliberate delay of the public lands
committee of the house, instead of
having the value of the stumpage from
that 5000, 900 acres of timber in the
national treasury we have parted with