The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1909-03-17

tFuuzht TO my attention. # has been
corrected. The mistakes made q
significant In amount mi importance
to the good accomplished.
~ mu>tsb be rememlbered that injustice
Wustt1e avoided IS much to the Cow
.sEnzneutsas to the 1sers of the Nations
~ FQreste, aud TINT II there were no
1tt6u6pt On the. pnrt OF dishonest men
to get possession Of the property of
the people In. ways contrary to law,
the men who n responsible o taxi
ing care of hat propertykfwould not
be Obliged to take the precautions to
protect it which NOW ABSOLUTELY
necessary.
eff, by mistake, injustice has been
done to any man 1t will be corrected,
so, far as / have the power. But re-
member two things; In the first place,
the Forest Service is snot responsible
for the law as 1t exists or for the rul-
ings of the Department of the Inter
ior. but It is governed both~by the law
and by these rulings, with both, in
most particulars it ds in hearty &C.
cord, butgif either is wrong, 1t is not
the authority of the Forest Ser
vice to correct 1t. Secondly, during
the Last fiscal year, timber worth more
six miflions of dollars standing
on invalid mining claims was saved 30
vi wv = otRNSS ~ AAS
examinations of mining claims. The
Forest Service has no apologies to
make for having defeated the men
who tried4to get this timber under CO.
Tor of the mining laws. Where SINH
lar Illegal attempts are made in b fu
ture, dt proposes to defeat them if 1t
can. in every single Instance, whether
the atteGnptHis to take the claim for
timber, Tor power, or for any other
fh nm 1ao{f{n1 nta rvofn{ro r,1rpOCnc IN
the other hand it will do its best to
help the legitimate prospectors and
miners and to give them advantages
and protection (which they do not en-
joy on lands outside the National For
HeSts. MI. Pinchot said that he was de-
Etermined no to question the validity
OF any Gnining 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 be-
neft OF every reasonable doubt is to
be given to the miner"
There is a certain kind OF opposi-
ton to h National Forests which can
not and ought % to be removed. II
there no opposition whatever to
be removed. If there were no opposi-
ton whatever to the Forest Service,
1T would be the ~clearest possible indi-
cation hat the service Is not doing Its
duty. In the exercise of the duty Inn
posed upon 1t, the Service has time
and again prevented certain men or
certain interests from getting things
they wanted, but ought not to have,
and from e men n these inter
ests the bitterest and most persistent
part of the opposition has steadily
come. Such interests are found, for
example, in some of h great sheep
men who object ito making room for
the small settler or to such reduction
in the number OF their stock as is nee
essaTy to protect the irrigation inter
ests and from men who are engaged
in the formation OF a great water pow
er TRUST. For the Opposition 1T has
excited from these interests, the For
est Service has no apologies whatever
to make. 1t proposes ITO stand reso-
lutely by the policy OF preferring to
help h small man make a living than
to help the largeaman make a profit,
and 1t will not abandon the policy of
governm emit control of the water pow
er to prevent monopoly. If the atti-
tIde of h Service in these matters
leads to irritation n denunciation,
then let the opponents of the Service
make the most of them; Neither in
this nor In any other salutatory poll
Icy adopted and maintained by the
Forest Service will there be a single
backward STEP"