The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-03-14
WASHINGTON
Fro n our Regular Correspondent.

With fine disregard for what
Congress thought in the matter,
the President by executive order
created 1900, 900 acres more of
forest reserves just before Congress
passed bill designed to prohibi,
this method of withdrawing land
from settlement. OF course the
President will enforce the law as it
stands on the statute books. He
said while police Commissioner i'll
New York that the best way to
kill bad law was to enforce it.
But evidently he saw no need of
enforcing what he considered All
unwise law before he actually had
to. Hence the additional reserves
BY the way, they are not forest re-.
serves any longer. They are ma
tional forests" term that is not
half so convenient and that will be
long in coming into general use.
There is a good deal Of mlslp-
prehension about what a forest re.
serve actually is, AMI while the
subject is still! hot from discussion
in Congress, it n'ay be well to ex
plain that it is not a selfish with
drawal of land for use by the gen
ersl government as many people
have been led to suppose. What
it practically amounts 20 under the
management Of the present Forest
Service is all executive prevention
of land stealing. In nearly all the
reserves there are scattered but in
the aggregate large tracts OF good
homestead and farming land.
None of this is withdrawn from
entry and all of it can be and even
tually will be settled just as though
it were on any other part of the
public domain. There are hun
dreds of thousands of acres Of valu
able grazing lands. These are open
to lease and legitimate use by the
cattle interests but under such re-
strictions that the land will not be
''grazed OUT and besides getting a
good revenue from it, the land will
be actually improved. Mineral
lands in the forest reserves can be
prospected and located just as well
as any other public mineral land
and the timber is conserved FIR the
use OF the miners just when and
where they need it most. The for
ests are protected from fires and the
game is preserved. Altogether
the Forest Service has been excel
lently managed and has been pro-
drctive of much more money for
the public and the general govern
ment than has ever been spent on
1t by appropriation.
#*A;
The Treasury is now after the
Standard Oil Company for big
steal i'll customs duties that shows
to much better advantage the coun
pany's thrift in seizing an oppor-
tunity than it does its moral sense
Charges have been formally made
that during the occupation of the
Philippines in 1901 the Standard
Oil Company was withdrawing oil
from the bonded warehouse free for
the use of the Quartermaster' De-
partment and paying duty of ST.
OIL a case on what was withdrawn
and sold to the general public. This
was right enough under the law,
but it appears that the company
withdrew 10000 more cases duty
free than it ever delivered to the
Quartermaster and when the duty
en- oil was afterward lowered to 40
cents it withdrew and paid the
lower authorities, thus clearing 6I
cents on a trifle less than 10000
cases of OIL This little discrepancy
was discovered by the present col
lector at Manila and now the Stand
ard Oil Company will have the
pleasure of explaining it in court.
XIX
1t is stated that the President
has by no means given up hope on
the ship subsidy bill aud that this
will be one of the first measures
introduced at the next session of
Congress. He has had number
OF conferences with representative
Humphreys of Washington on the
future of the bill. Mr.. Roosevelt
is going to Indianapolis on May
3Ist for the unveiling of the Law
ton Monument and it is said that