Williams news., 1911-01-14
SECRETARY OF AGRI-
 CULTURE IS SUSTAINED

stock on the National Forests with out a permit has been sustained in
 New Mexico by action of the Fed eral courts in three cases in which the defendants had caused or per mitted stock to trespass upon the Alamo Forest in defiance of the regulations
 Because of the belief which has been current among stockmen of some localities during the last year that the regulations of the Secre tary of Agriculture with regard to grazing on the National Forests are unenforcea ble, the New Mexico cases are regarded by officials of the Department of Agriculture as particularly timely and valuable The recent disposition to question the validity of the regulations has evidently been due to the entirely natural desire of the stockmen to assert what they supposed, though mistakenly, to be their rights under he law as interpreted by the courts Secretary Wilson considers that the effect of the action taken in the New Mexico cases will be to clarify the situation materially, and to promote better understa nding of the legal rights of the Department.
 The misconception which has led stoc kmen to suppose they might graze their stock on the National
 Forests without taking out permit and paying the grazing fee was due to the decision rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States last March, affirming a decision of the United States district court for the southern district of California, by Judge Wellborn, that violation of the grazing regulations is not punishable as a crime This de- cision of the Supreme Court, how
 ever, was by an even division of the Justices, and therefore did not decide the general question one way or the other, but merely af 6rmed the decision of the lower court in the particular case The Supreme Court has granted a re- hearing of the case, in order that the question may be passed upon by a full bench and authoritively settled, and this rehearing will soon take place. But the authority of the Secretary to prevent grazing except in accordance with his reg
 ulations does not, it is pointed out, depend upon affirmation of the power of the Government to pun ish violation of the regulations as crime. This is made clear by the action in two of the New Mexico cases; while the third case illus
 trates the fact that the affirmation of Judge Wellborn's decision by
 be Supreme Court has no binding force in cases other than the par
 Iicular one then before the court.
 Tn the cases of Sam Cope and $. O. Cope, defendants. and of G. w.
 Iernigan, defendant, injunctions
 were granted by the Federal dis
 trict court to prevent the continued raging of stock owned by he de-
 fendants upon the National Forests.
 The ground upon which these in functions were granted was not th-
 power of the Government to pun ish violators of the rrgulaii ms ! through criminal procedure. but was the right of the Government to bring civil action against the owners of stock which trespass upon the property of the govern
 ment. In the Cope case punitive damages were imposed by the court for willful tIespass, in addition to an award of $75 for actual dam ages sustained. The amount of
 the actual damage was determined
 by the finding of the court that
 the value of the grazing privilege ' in the Alamo National For+sI was | $1 50 per year for each head of cattle or horses.
 This case is the more decisive as
 to the authority of the Secretary to