The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1908-11-10
FORESTER PINCHOT AN
SWERS DENVER POST

laws of the United States.
The forest service has never denied
a patent to a mineral claim IN any
national forest, nor declared the same
to be invalid, for it has no right to DC
so. But it is the duty OF the forest
service, under the law, to report to the
department of the interior, upon its
request, the actual facts on the ground
concerning any claim or location WITHIN
a rational forest, to enable the depare-
ment of the interior to form a Judg-
ment as to the validity of such claim
or location. The department OF the
interior forms that judgment and acts
upon 1.-THE forest service merely re-
ports such facts az it finds. 1t is not
the judge, but merely a witness IN the
case.
SO far as the appropriation made 10:
the forest service by congress woulI
permit, the forest service has secured
practical miners, competent to make
correct reports of the facts. 1t has
likewise secured the assistance OF
skilled mining biologists from the
United States geological survey, and 30
far as l am informed no hearing has
ever been held by the department OF
the interior on a mining claim In a
national forest at which evidence has
not been given either by an expert
miner or by a member of the United
States geological survey, or both.
Your editorial of Oceober 10 says,
with reference to the y 900 acres
of national forests in Colorado, that
cit is impossible to stake a mineral
claim in that immense mineralized area.
Such are the facts"
These alleged facts have, / think,
been sufficiently disposed of in what j
have already said.
1 revert to your editorial of October
16 in which you say: "Coal lands were
withdrawn from entry. Prospectors
were denied permission to stake their
ton rights. Settlers were refused
lands. Within the last nine months
nearly 1000 applications for homestead
Happy is that nation which has no
history SO runs the proverb; for much
that goes under the name of history is
but a tale of wars and public miseries.
One thinks of Switzerland. the
"Ideal Republic" as felicitously exein-
plifying the adage quoted. A glorious
history indeed has been hers in the past,
but her peace and contentment and
well being have been such for many
years that she may be said, in the
light of the ~proverb, to have had no
history during a long period.
Yet Switzerland has been all along
making history of a different type from
a mere chronicle of kings and wars
history that has given her a high place
of honor among civilized nations and
earned for her the praise of mankind.
AS an example, we may point to her
settlement of the drink problem, which
rebounds so much to the happiness ana
prosperity OF her people.
1t is not so well known as it should
be that the system of regulating the
liquor traffic in Switzerland, known as
the Swiss Alcohol Monopoly, is intend
of distilled liquors, whisky, brandy,
etc, while encouraging the use of beer
and wine. Mr.. Millet, director of the
Government Monopoly for many years
says expressly:
"The aim of the Swiss Government
was, in substance, to improve the quail
ity of brandy and at the same time 20
check its consumption by substituting
for it the less harmful wine and beer"
He declares frankly that "to the Fed
Grafton was assigned the task of max
ing wine, cider and peer cheaper and
more easily obtainable-whiskey, how
ever, dearer and less easy to obtain
Also he points out that ''the local gov
ernments exercise supervision over ths
quality of those beverages, the moder-
ate use of which the Federation had,
so to speak, declared legitimate-name-
ly, wine, beer and eider.n
Summing up the advantages of thu
Swiss plan, Mr.. Millet asserts that "the
Monopoly offers a better distribution
OF the burdens among the different
classes of the population and enables
us to tax the distilled spirits variously
ii. e., the drink of the rich man higher
than that of the poor man." The pur-
ity of the product was another advan-
tage claimed to have been secured un.
der the Swiss system.
This discrimination in favor of the
milder beverages has been attended nv