The Alaska citizen., 1913-12-15

| the Northern Pacific railway. that t | had received under the land grant from l congress Eut here. also. the Northern | Pacific owned sou5e barren. rocky mountain t"P>. utterly worthless cN- l c"pt for scenery. of ceursc these | facts did not escape the attention of 1 the "CuuS"ryatIunJ~'s THs ruI'Ina
 mon of the Hart .q.,zl. aS well a. inc | railroad mon -- s'~ southwest. wor, 1 active an1 Hu H.ujiai in tH~ "eou-,f- | tatiou" rr...w,u.. They contributed | tine sinra~ e' #ar that added straue,4 to the r-orH~ al 'tHe forest should | he pre- r.'z} f .~y d'man JcH tru:
 the ro =-n -.h, ~Hould create fnr
 est res. u, tt- northwest wa,ra 1 there VI. T ,rfs.-. a- they had creat- .a them .u f.e >antawest Where tH.r,. was nor. ~.." railroad mon. laiu- ri by N..y yet saus,r ana other great | .eoas.r r'3=a#.az a.fsr We're su ratriotte | ;'at tr.v v.ra not only raady au I l Wiling t5 raise their voices bu, the cash 10 sa,,e tHc forests for tGc roa= pie
 The M7,n' Rainier National aark was crcat'd. and for this aet. ai1- tne and aHttt.Hs tHa "conserNntinnistS. congress i- directly responsible. THer | hy eNecutir. ar}er tHe Pacific Ferc>t Reserve was created In these two. | creations, mostly in the Pacific Fer.st | reserve. w,re inclHiaI n.unh acres of barren and racticalIy worthless laut bclangine to tl.c Northern Pacific rai3- way This land was largely the crest Of ttah no4ntain ranges a},3t r. timber line. much of it cuvcr.d Ev glaciers and eternal snoHs. nom of tf of much 'alus Then the old. famfl,sr fransaetian tsok place. For lG.sa worthless aeros, witb tue consent anA the assistance of the Forest Scr ice. the Northern Pacific Was permitted to select 4ao,o00 acres of the h.st timhered land in America. worth taa1t. at the least calculation $1N.ao6 naa
 According To the estimate of tn Bureau of Corporation il weaH be worth $5a.ooo,eoo. This vast tract be lon2in- to the people of th" United states Was taken from them anl. in the name of conservation given ta the Northern Pacific railway ifav- fn.s received this great gift rar netA- ins. the Northern Pacific railway in turn sold most of 1t to the Meyer haouser syndicate.
 The national forests in the north west had been established; the peo- ple's rights had been made secure. the unselfish patriotism of Weycr- EaeuScr and the railroads Vindicatsd and the great timber monopoly of the northwest placed upon a secure and enduring Foundation.
 By the time these transactions which I have enumerated wcro com pletod. and many others of similar character, coneress began to reali5.. that the railroads and not the pcont= Were the real heneficiaries of this policy of creating national forests hjti was introduced and passed tbraH"H the honse repeating this H"u-land law. but the friends of "conSeryation' blocked its prompt passage in the senate. There was reason I'll. Northern Pacific still owned some worthless land and some fine forests still stood on the public domain Nc corln@ to the hest information can obtain, while this bill was pend in" in the senate. by executive order lively worthless land hclon2ine to the
 
 of Montana was included in forest reserve. Scrip for it was hurrirdlv issued. The creation of further for est reserves in the Pacific northwest was considerably suspended untn the railroads were given time to use this scrip. Thus, again. the Northern Pa cifiC received as q gift 2ia.n00 acres of the best tmbered land in the Northwest. worth today at least $5,000.- 900. This done, other reserves wcre hurriedly created, and the bill Wa passed became law, and this most as founding and most repreh"nsihle prac- tice in the history of this Nation of "iVing the railways the best puhli" lands for nothing was ended Con sress also prohibited the further crea- tion of national forests by executfvc order.
 have not given all the transaction, where the public lands were given to railroads and to other private in- terests practically for nothing. The exact facts are hard to obtain. hut l hope I have found al least some of the worst and most flaGrant eases and certainly I have found all that is necessary to show the metGods followed. These transactions that I have related demonstrate more strik- insly than any other chapter in tn. history of this Nation the danger ana the evil of congress giving the pow CT to departments and bureaus. This mistake on the part of congress is directly responsible for the people of this Nation being robbed of many m millions nf nf Ia in, solely for the benefit of the railroad and other private interests. No sane man will for a moment contend that any one of these transactions, whereby the people were robbed of their na- tional inheritance, would ever have been consummated if it had required legislative action. Not one of these transactions could for moment hare stood the publicity of discussion. Tn future years these transactions. giv- ing millions of acres of the best public domain to the railroads in exchan:se for barren and worthless lands, trans actions that were urged and engineer ed by the great railroads without objection from the Forest Service, will be recognized as the greatest crime against the American people perpetrated in this generation.
 l am going to ask you gentlemen, now, not to interrupt me until get through have heen talking | about things that are of the past want to talk about the present now. I want to call your attention to this map of the state of Washington, to give you some idea of how we are conserved in the west. This