Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1907-01-02
DISCOVERING FIRST ENGLISH
 SETTLEMENT.
(From Friday's DailyO

has been widely commented rpon throughout tho West on the suppps; tion that it declares illegal the rcgula- tion os c'r'ng on foi q. reserves ani the system of charging for grazing per. mits. As n matter of fact, the decision.
 which was handed down by Judge
 Wbitson, of the United States District Court for eastern Washington, in the
 case of 'hc United States vs. Matthews,
 has no bearing whatever upon inc lc.
 gality of the grazing regulations or of
 grazing fees, which stand precisely as
 before. The legal question involved
 was simply this; Does the law auth
 orizing inc Secretary of Agriculture ,o
 issue regulations make the breach of
 those regulations a crimci
 Judge Whitson E decision merely an.
 swercd this question "No." It was in
 substance that the objection to the in-
 dictmcnt against Walter Matthews was
 the absence of law defining the act
 therein charged as criminal ofrcnsc.
 Upon that ground the court held that he demurrer must be sustained and the
 defendant discharged.
 Though the point was simple and
 clear enough. it was entirely miscon- strucd in the press reports of t<,e de cision and in editorial comments upon it For instance, in the Wyoming Tri-
 bunc of Tuesday, November c, news of Judge Whitson's s action was given uD. der the headlines: "Grazing Fees IT,
 legal Decides Federal Judge" and the article declares that "As n result of the decision, Matthews, who entered the Mount Rainier Forest Reserve without the permit required by the Secretary, ! Is still using the reserve and is no, paying the fee imposed by the Secrc . tnry." As matter of fact, Mir. Mat thews' sheep were immediately re . moved upon notice for the forest of
 ficcrs and have not since entered th, | reserve.
 In the sheridan, wyo., Post, it i' '' said: "A decision fraupht with i'm '' portancc to Wyoming stockmcn is tha T. appearing in this issue, wherein it ii c held by the United States Distric n Court that the collection of fees fol e grazing live stock is illegal. '' Since it's imposition this fee has bee' 's regarded as illegal and arbitrary b. T. many we'll informed Wyoming people 's and the views expressed by the cour
 in this decision meet with general ar d provai here. The litigant '' still running his sheep on the Rainie y Reserve without paying the fees" E. The Supreme Court of Arizona, thre it judges sitting, in the case of Dent VI r. United States (76 Pacific Reportc
 i55), went still further, under circun n' stances Which made the decision no' n' emphatic. Dent was criminally pro " ecutcd for grazing on n forest rcscrv s' without n permit, in violation of tf " regulations, and the court has hel '' thut hls net was not crime, put
 soon as the Dastcrvigncs case was d
 eidcd for the government, the Arizon H. court granted a rchcaring of the Dc'
 ease and held that the Dastcrvign'
 decision was binding on all courts the ninth district in criminal as VIC "' as civil cases. and that Dent was thcr
 fore guilty of a crime.
 So far. therefore, the court dccisio'
 ns to the criminality of trespass co |, trary to the forest reserve regulation :. are conflicting. Final adjudication as the point cannot be had until the ruli'
 of higher court has questioned q ', right of the Secretary of Agricultu .;,, to make regulations and to recov . damages from trespnss through ci' ,ts action.
 ov Grazing irespasscrs will be restrai il, cd from violation of the regulations ,,s injunction proceedings and sued [ eh civil damages until the higher eoui ,o shall have reached n decision ms to [ of criminal character of such irespass' ri. The for-a service will continue to . m. cludc unpcrmittcd stock from all fore DO. reserves an1 to collect grazing fees ,h. all stock under permit.
 nc -
 nr ARIZONA SIMPLIFYING CoMPAf