The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1909-02-05
SENATORS MONDEtL AND SMITH
HEAP DENUNCiATlON UPON
GOVERNMENT BUREAU.
BRAND IT AN "OUTRAcE"
Are to Grind Dollars Out Of People
Of West and That It "Fiiches Pen.
nies From the Pockets Of the Poor"
Scott Makes a Reply.

Washington. Feb. 4.-The forestry
consideration of the agricultural bill
came in for further criticism. Mr..
Mondell of Wyoming charged that the
forestry bureau was administered with
wanton extravaganza. His state
ments were controverted by Scott,
who said the Keep commission had
found that the forest service employees
were paid less than those of other de-
partments.
Bitter denunciation was heaped upon
the service by Mr.. Smith of Califor-
MIA. 1t was. he said, the greatest out
rage that had been perpetrated upon
any people.
"The effort of the forest bureau"
he declared, "is to grind every dollar
it can get out of the people of the
west"
There was, he declared, no kind OF
an activity carried on in any part of
the national forest, that people were
not made to yield, money, money,
money" all the time to the federal
government. He charged that the for
est service had Illegally extorted fees
from miners, stockmen, farmers and
others. He spoke particularly of a
case in which a fee of 10 cents each
had been levied on bee hives. There
was" he vehemently asserted, neither
sense nor justification for filching
these pennies from the pockets Of the
poor bee man."
Grindnu of Poor
"Unless a halt is called on this
grinding Of the poor" he said, "a re-
action will occur and the forest sys-
tenn will be destroyed"
"If the forest service" he said,
would confine itself to it's proper
functions it would rank as one Of the
great institutions of the government"
Mr.. Cook of Colorado expressed his
Of all Mr.. Smith had uttered
and said that Mr.. Pinchot's sole pur-
pose was "to get Secretary Wilson's
position in the cabinet"
Mr.. Weeks of Massachusetts, defend
ed the forest service. He said the diff
ficulty with Mr. Pinchot's critics was
that their constituents in the past had
been in the habit of going upon forest
reservation and removing timber with
out paying anything for it, and that
was true Of raising herds on public
grazing lands. He denied that any
body had been "milked"
"custom to Boost"
Declaring that he would not be un-
derstood as making harsh statement,
Mr.. Mann of Illinois, said that for
many years 1t had so become "the
custom to loot the public domain that
when the government enedavors to
come into it's own, 1t looks like a rob-
berry to the people of the west" APP
plause and EXPLANATIONS of Hear!
heart" followed this utterance. He
said when he first came to the house
the complaint was that the forest serv-
ice would not be administered along
business lines, but that now the COM
plant was that there was too much
If bJsinesslike administration.
1t was not necessary Mr.. Mann de-
clared to defend Mr.. Pinchot against
the assaults that had been made upon
him. "His work" he added, will
stand for all time"
Both Messrs, Smith and Mondell de-
MED that the people Of the west were
opposed to the forest service itself.
but said that their objections We're
based on the policies of that service.