Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-01-19
TTibulatiOnS OF
A NOmeSteadeT

In reply to numerous inquiries
concerning the contest on my home
stead, | consider it no more than
fair that the public should know the
inner workings of the department of
our government known as the Forest
Service and the conditions that bring
on q contest of this kind.
The contest is brought on by none .
other than the forest supervisor, who !
in this case happens to be NJ. L. /,
Erickson. While we know this to
be a fact, yet when an officer is con-
fronted with this charge he says he
is simply performing his duty in
sending in reports as required by the
government. Yet we know positively
| that a forest officer holding the po-
sition Erickson holds can by the
stroke of his pen approve or disap-
prove our case in his report, thereby
ayerting or bringing on a contest, as
in this case.
About year after we settled on
our lands they were placed inside the
limits of the national forest, which
brought us under the supervision of
the Forest Service. At first we well
coined them as our friends, for, as
their own rules state, it is their busi-
ness to look after the interests of
the settler, aid him in every way pos
sible and help to settle the agricul-
tural areas of the reserve. We have
fed and lodged them and their
horses many times; we have made
new roads and kept the old ones in
repair; we built sixteen miles of tele-
phone line and put in the best instru-
meats money could buy. They de-
manded and obtained the free use of
this. Three years ago last summer
when the fires were at their worst
the homesteaders were the first men
on the fields, in some cases putting
out smaller fires without the aid OF
knowledge of the Forest Service. We
worked because our interests were
there. What could they have done
during the year 1910 had it not been
for the settlers, the privately owned
{ telephones, and the roads, built with
{ out the assistance it was their dut!
: to give?
| h., pf
good agricultural, practically treeles
. land being turned down on thu
= grounds that good timber woult
: grow there, if planted. Erickson
q told me that himself, when inquired
about a certain agricultural tract. S,
: they spent more time and none
= planting trees, when the timber W
/. have is actually rotting and bein
g killed by beetles for want of maj
: ket.
= During the past seven years tha
& we have been directly under the su
{ pervision of the forestry department
: they have allowed us to go on with
= out a word of protest or advice
6 spending from seven to eleven year
{ of the best part of our lives an
y every dollar we could earn in deve
" oping these claims. Then when
o comes to obtaining title, they step i
and protest. Why is this done?
is not because we have not met tn
requirements. When / made m
~ final proof the land commissions
y complimented me upon the efficienc
of my proof, stating that l had pu
in ample time and had made NOR
than sufficient improvements. Th
answer, then, is simply this: Ever
adverse report that goes in make
work for a horde of forest lawyers
claim examiners and others alon
down the line, while a favorable rt
port puts things through in a hurr.
and Jones pays the freight. In othe
4 words, every time a citizen pays h
\ taxes he helps pay the salary an
n expenses of these special men. Cit
u zens have a right to complain abol
4 paying such taxes.
h Almost without exception ii
4 homesteader wins out in the contes
\ But when a man is down to bedrocl
= an additional unnecessary expense {
. two or three hundred dollars NEAR
hardship. Ignore the contest, an
III years of toll and saving are throw
! | away.
V could write pages of this-ho
II Pinchot worked directly into Il
hands of the lumber corporation
when he recommended the chant
II made in the stone and timber Law
n how prevention of fires is causing Il
| destruction of our forests by the be
| tie; how the policy of settling up Il
agricultural lands of the reserves
one of theory not of practice; no
| Mr.. Gribble, of whom you have q
heard, carried a skeleton key in h