The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1907-02-08
HEPBURN Tells
OF LAND Grabs
ACCUSES A VICE PRESIDENT OF
NATIONAL FOREST RESERVE
ASSOCIATION.
He Protests for Idaho-Senator Con-
cludes His Criticism of Adminisha-
ton of Public Land Laws-.tfouse
Has Busy Day.

CIlJIClSu Oh the duIululSITdIlOu VI IAC
public land laws, Senator Hepburn
said there was no likelihood that con-
gress would loan the forestry bureau
$5,00O,OOO, as asked by the president,
and no necessity for it.
Mr.. Hepburn said the government
had gone into his home county in
Idaho and taken 80 per cent. of the
county as forest reserve The coun-
ty had previously made public inn
provements, but these had all been
lost to the county and acquired by
the government.
Reserve System Vicious.
Senator Depew asked if the sena-
tors contention would destroy the
whole system of forest reserves.
The system of forest reserves as
now operated" responded Mr.. Hey
burn, lis so vicious that anything
that would destroy it would be well
come.''
Mr.. Depew asked if it was not true
that combinations of eastern capital
had gone into the west and grabbed
up large timber holdings.
THE largest land grabber is one of
the vice presidents of the National
Forest Reserve association Of the
United States" answered Mr.. Hey
burn. He owns more land, the title
to which was illegally obtained, than
any other man or all other men in the
United States, and he is one of the
xyiaa re Of
alton, the president of which is our
worthy secretary of agriculture"
Land Hurriedly Grabbed.
Were not these lands acquired by
the vice president spoken of before
the reserves were created?' asked Mr..
Smoot.
mo; a number of them were &C
quired while we sat here in the vain
superstition that we were heading off
these land grabs, while another
branch of the government contracts
were being rushed through with all
speed that the ink might be dry on
them before we passed the act which
shut out the exchange of lands an
swered Mr.. Hepburn.
One of the greatest points for
criticism, said Mr.. Hepburn, was that
two acres of grazing land to one of
timber had been withdrawn as forest
reserves.
The remedy, Mr.. Hepburn said, was
to take the administration of the
public land laws from the interior
department and put it in the hands
of special land court, provision for
which he had made in special bill
now pending.
House Passes Several Bills.
The house passed a number of inn
portant bills Monday including the
McCumber service pension bill, the
omnibus lighthouse bill and the emni-
bus revenue cutter bill. Members
sought to get through with as much
legislation as possible under suspen-
sion of the rules.
The house, by vote of ITO to So,
concurred in the senate amendments
to the urgent deficiency bill, lending
the jamestown exposition $1,000,000
and safeguarding the loan by lien
on the gross receipts.
Resolutions were passed calling for
an investigation by the secretary of
commerce and labor, through it's bu-
reau of corporations, of cotton ex-
changes and the fluctuations in cotton
prices, giving privileged status to
the bill codifying and consolidating
the patent and copyright laws, and
directing a report by the secretary of
the interior of the number of existing
patents granted to officers and en-
ployes of the United States.
Bills providing for the protection
of game in Alaska and authorizing a
refund of certain taxes collected un-
der the war revenue act of 1898 were
also passed.
Hepburn Opposes Waterway.
Washington, Feb. Represents
tive Hepburn of Iowa, speaking On the
river and harbor bill, addressed the
house Saturday on the project cham
pioned by the Missouri and Illinois
members for deep waterway from
Chicago to the gulf. He made reply
to Mr. Clark of Missouri, who, he said,
wanted to build waterway 1000
miles in extent between granite walls
200 feet high. He had seen the Mis-
sissippi river when it was five miles
in extent, with volume of water that
would defy the puny efforts of man
to hold it. He characterized the
scheme as "Utopian and chimerical."
and declared that when the proposed
waterway from st. Louis to Cairo
should be completed it would have
velocity of from 20 to 20 miles an
hour. THAT would be admirable for
downstream navigation" he said,
"but how would vessels get up?
when you take out the sand bars
and the sinuosities from a river you
increase its current enormously, max
ing it practically impossible for navi-
cation" he declared.