Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1906-01-24

a
$25,000,000 a year, and it is much more
than that-wiu so right along and
continue until all the timber land Of
| the government has been stolen. That
viii be little over a year, according
| to the report of the senate public
lands committee And after the land
| stolen-the house public lands COM
| mittee will awaken from it's Rip Van
| Wrinkle slumbers and close the stable
door with a bang.
Some Things to Do.
| Before | close L wish to specify
should be done:
First-Repeal the timber and stone
| act.
Second-Pass the consolidation bill
! putting the government forests under
the management Of the bureau Of for
Third-Provide by national legisla-
! 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 a home 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 the communication
! clause; the land thieves Of Montana,
under the desert land act;-the land
| thieves under the timber and stone act
! in-Weu, perhaps [ might be permitted
to mention Oregon Qaughter9 are
Worklng together: You will have to
| among them to break up the combi
| 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
senator's and both Representatives
| from Oregon were bitterly opposed to
any change in the land laws. Repre-
| sentatives 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 1aWs-the timber and stone act
the desert land act and the commuta-
ton clause-and sent a memo rial to
the public lands committee to that eff
feet. Now the grand jury has had
some business with Mr.. Hermann since
that time. daughter and applause.)
In all those western states the state
local public improvements, such as ir-
rigation districts, sanitary districts,
drainage districts or leyee districts
is the right policy that the national
government should assume the burden
of protecting from fire forests now
from the government for one-tenth of
their value. The state and nation
should cooperate to form forestry
districts and have assessments levied
on all private lands in the district, and
every acre should contribute it's pro-
portion to the cost Of preserving it
from fire. (Applause)
There is one more thing that I was
going to urge as mere matter of per-
sonal opinion. In making the sugges-
for the National Irrigation AsSOcia-
ton, but for myself alone. I have
been all my life a republican and in
lican 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 I be-
lieve in preserving our industries and
not in destroying them I believe that
IN order to preserve the forest indus,
every tariff law imposing a tariff upon
the products of the forest, whether
timber or wood or wood pulp, at any
rate for limited number of years and
until we shall have planted forests
enough to harvest annually from our
own forests all the wood and timber
There are a number of other things
that I have in my mind to suggest
that ought to be done:
Pass the Appalachian Bill.
One is to pass the Appalachian for
estry bill, which is ready to be passed
time all exchange of lands in forest
reserves for other lands. If the gov
eminent needs any such land let it buy
and no more. All lieu land scrip
should be called in and Cancelled and
no more ever issued under any circum-
stances. The forest lieu land ex-
change law should be repealed.
The bill providing for the consolida-
ton of the government forestry inter-
ests is ready to be passed by the
senate and should be passed in this
session of congress. It has already
passed the house; and if this session
of congress adjourns without the bill
being passed by the house which has
passed the senate, repeating the tim
Der and stone act every member of
the public lands committee ought to be
held up to popular obloquy and
whipped at the carts tail with a lash