The daily sentinel., 1909-03-17

money available.
"A knowledge of such facts as
these should set at rest once and
forever the claim sometimes and so
mistakenly made that the national
forests are closed against develop
ment
In the immense amount of busi-
ness transacted over so large an area,
it was inevitable that mistakes should
be made. l do not doubt that in iso-
lated cases injustice has been done
and wherever such injustice has been
brought to my attention it has been
corrected. The mistakes made are
insignificant in amount and import
ance compared to the good accom-
plished. 1t must be remembered
that injustice must be avoided as
much to the government as to the
users of the national forests, and
that, If there were no attempt on the
part of dishonest men to get possess
sion of the property of the people in
ways contrary to law, the men who
are responsible for taking care of
that property would not be obliged
to take the precautions to protect it
which are now absolutely necessary.
IF, by mistake, injustice has been
done to any man, it will be corrected,
so far as l have the power. But, re-
member two things: in the first
place, the forest service is not re-
sponsible for the law as it exists or
for the rulings of the department of
the interior. but it is governed both
by the law and by these rulings, with
both Gin most particularly it is in
hearty accord, but, if either is wrong,
it is not within the authority of the
forest service to correct it; secondly,
during the last fiscal year, timber
worth more than millions of dol
lars standing on invalid mining
claims was saved to the people of the
United States by the examina tions of
mining claims. The forest service
has no apologies to make for having
defeated the men who tried to get
this timber under color of the min
ing laws. Where similar illegal at
tempts are made in the future, it
proposes to defeat them if 1t can, in
every single instance. whether the
attempt is to take the claim for tim
ber, for power or for any other than
legitimate mining purposes. On the
other hand it Will do it's best to help
the legitimate prospectors and min
ers and to give them advantages and
protection which they do not enjoy
on lands out side the national for
ests-
Mr. Pinchot said that he was de-
of any mining claim apparently held
in good faith for mining purposes
and not adverse to the interests of
the government, no matter whether
or not 1t probably contains a paying
amount of minerals
I'm other words" he said, "the
benefit of every reasonable doubt is
to be given to the miner.
There is Il certain kind OF op-
position to the national forests which
cannot and ought not to be removed.
If there were no opposition whatever
to the forest service, it would be the
clearest possible indication that the
service is not doing its duty. In the
exercise of the duty imposed upon il
the service has time and again pre-
vented certain men or certain inter-
ests from getting things they wanted
but ought not to have. and from these
men and these interests the bitterest
and most persistent part of the op-
position has steadily come.
"Such interests are found, for eX-
ample, in some of the great sheep
men who object to making room for