The Greeley tribune., 1906-02-01

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s25,O0O,G00 a year, and it is much more
than that-wiu go right along and
continue until all the timber land OF
the government has been stolen. That
viii be 4 little over a year, according
to the report of the senate public
lands committee. And after the land
is all gone--after the horse has been
stolen-the house public lands com
mittee viii awaken from it's Rip Van
Wrinkle slurnbers and close the stable
door with bang.
Some Things to Do.
Before l close l wish to specify
some definite and speclAc things whicn
Flrst-Repeal the timber and stone
Second-Pass the consolidation bill
puLDAS the government forests under
the management Of the bureau OF for
esIry.
| ton that every acre OF agricultural
! land that can be reclaimed under the
national irrigation system must be
saved for the hOmemaker who Will go
| there and make q nome upon it
In that way you can break up the
| timber combinations. and IN that way
only; because the land thieves OF
North Dakota. under tine communication
| clause; the land thieves OF Montana,
under the desert land act; the land
thieves under the timber and stone act
in--weIl, perhaps l might be permitted
\ 10 mention oregon llauShterJ are
| working together You VIII have 10
J NplD4G some OF lIOSe JdpuHtSt SitlIS
among them TO break up the combl-
nation.
To show you why we cannot depend
. upon congressman from the timber
! states of the west to correct this enor-
| nous evil, year ago both oregon
| senators and both representatives,
| any change in the land laws. Repre-
| scntatives Hermann and Williamson
both went before the committee and
| protested against any change. Mr.
| Hermann was before the committee.
| AT that exact moment the oregon
| grand Jury was in session in the city
| of Portland, composed of men drawn
! by lot from all over the state, and that
| grand jury urged the repeal of all
those laws-tEe timber and stone act
| the desert land act and the commuta-
| ti0n clause--aud sent a memorial to
| the pubic lands committee to that eff
feet. Now the grand jury has had
| some business with Mr.. Hermann since
| that time. daughter and applauSe.b
In all those western states the state
| has the power to form districts for
! local public improvements, such as tr-
| rlgation districts, sanitary districts
! drainage districts or tevee districts
! and l for one do not believe that that
| is the right policy that the national
| government should assume the burden
| of protecting from fire forests now
| owned by men who have gotten them
| from the government for one-tenth of
| their value. The state and nation
| should cooperate to form forestry
districts and have assessments levied
| every acre should contribute its pro-
portion TO the cost Of preserving it
| from fire. (Applause.)
| There is one more thing that / was
| going to urge as a mere matter of per-
| sonal opinion. In making the sugges-
! tion 1 do not speak for California or
for the National Irrigation Associa-
| tion, but for myself alone. l have
been all my life a republican and in
| my earlier years advocated the repub-
| lean doctrine of a tariff for protection
in many political campaigns in my ma
| tive state of California from the Or
| egon line to Mexico; but because l be-
| lieye in preserving our industries and
| not in destroying them l believe that
! in order to preserve the forest indus
| tries of this nation we should repeal
every tariff law imposing a tariff upon
| the products of the forest, whether
timber or wood or wood pulp, at any
rate for a limited numbersof years and
| until we shall have planted forests
! enough to harvest annually from our
| own forests all the wood and timber
| we may use in any one year.
There are number of other things
| that | have in my mind to suggest
that ought to be done: