New-York tribune., 1915-03-22
J. ID. Moore Names Spon-
sorS of Single-Headed
Conservation Board.
TELLS OF SCANDALS
UNDER OLD REGIME
Asserts State Stands to Gain
S1,O0O,000 Under Suits Be-
gun by Present Body.
lbs Telegraph to III. Trbun., J

Albany, March 2i.--John ID. Moore
State Conservation Commissioner, in
statement issued tonight practically
accused the lumber interests of being
behind the Machold bill, which reduces
the present State Conservation Com
mission Of three members 70 "A single
headed body. The statement declares
that the lumber interests stand to lose
81 100000 if suits brought against them
by the present commission are pushed
and arc won by the state.
To-day" says Commissioner Moore
"I saw a COPY of letter and report
which we're sent TO Governor Whitman
by Colonel William Barbour, OF New
York, on January &. He wrote as chair.
man Of self-appointed committee OF
persons variously interested in the Adj
rondacks Colonel Barbour advocated
changing to a single headed commls.
sion. and stated that, in the opinion or
the committee, the present three-head-
ed commission was created Tor polltl-
cal purposes and asserted that 1t can
not be denied that the greatest prog
ress in all branches of the department
has been made under a single headed
commission. The department reached
its highest state Of efficiency and the
climax Of its advance in forestry just
before the Dix administration came
into Office, four years ago.
Those who remember the scandals
unearthed by Governor Hughes's 1910
Investigation of the Adirondack stu
| certainly deny them. The official
records Of this department justify my
denial.
"The Barbour committee included
besides Colonel Barbour, who owns
big camp at Upper Lake, Frank L..
Moore, president OF the Empire State
Forest Products Association; r. NJ.
Parker, president Of the Brooklyn
Cooperage Company; Ferris J. Meigs,
president of the Santa Clara Lumber
Company; Frank l.. Bell, OF Glen3
Falls, attorney for the Union Bag and
Paper Company, and other large Adj
rondack land owners; +. A. Gaylord,
superintendent of Dr.. W. Seward
Webb's great preserve at Nehssane;
Dr. f.. Hagaman Hall, secretary Of the
Association for the Protection Of the
Adirondacks, and Ottoman II. Van Nor
den. of the Camp Fire Club.
Frank L. Bell, of Glens Falls, was
special counsel TO Forest, Fish and
Game Commissioner Whipple. Colonel
Barbour omits TO state perhaps he
did not know it-that Governor
Hughes's investigators, Roger T..
Clark, his counsel, and II. Leroy Aus
tin, afterward Forest, Fish and Game
Comm ssioner, reported TO him that
they discovered that Mr.. Bell had been
acting in the spring of 1909 as legis-
lative agent Of the international Paper
Company while ostensibly acting for
the Forest, Fish and Game Commits
sion. This was promptly reported to
the Forest Purchase Board, who ac-
cepted Mr. Bells resignation on Sep
tember "a, 1910
Borrowed from Counsel.
"Colonei Barbour might also have
told Governor Whitman that lnvestl-
gators Clark and Austin informed Gov
ernor Hughes that shortly after the
appointment of Frank L. Bell as spe-
cial counsel, Commissioner Whipple
borrowed $4,000 Of him (BelD, the
greater portion Of which yet remains
unpaid
"When Mr.. Bell could no longer
serve both the state and private inter
ests simultaneously, he began to serve
private interests exclusively. One OF
Lis clients was the Union Bag and
Paper Company. In December, 1917,
while acting as their counsel, Mr.. Bell
handed to the present political com
mission check for $4,000, in set
tlement of a trespass case. People
who are not lawyers call them timber
thefts. Messrs Clark and Austin said
that we are absolutely satisfied that,
under the administration Of Comms-
sioner Whipple (whose counsel was
Mr.. Bell), even after all the notoriety
with reference to the settlement OF
trespass cases which directly led TO
his appointment, the state has not re-
ceived in damages and penalties the
actual value of the timber stolen dur
ing the last FIVE years. nor anywhere
near it,
"In 1904 ex-senator lothian P. Aids,
attorney for Commissioner Middleton,
sued Ferris j. Meigs's Santa Clara
Lumber Company for possession OF
about $500 acres of heavily timbered
and extremely valuable land in the
northern part of Hamilton County.
Commissioner Middleton and Senator
AlldS entered INTO an agreement WIN
Mr.. Megs under which the state re-
tanned title to the land, and had the
privilege Of paying taxes on it for
ever after, and Mr.. Meigs's company
took the timber.
after investigation, the present
Conservation Commission made up its
mind that this Middleton-Allds-M Meigs
stipulation, even il not corrupt, was
void, and took the matter into the
Supreme Court. We were defeated
there, and in the Appellate Division.
bat, on November 10, 1914, the Court
of Appeals sustained the Conservation
Commission and made it perfectly
clear that no state officer has the
power 20 stipulate away the public
ownership in its Adirondack lands.
There is another very similar Santa
Clara case. The value of the timber
involved In these two cases and the
penalties aggregate s630,000.
THE commercial lumbermen, how
ever, on the committee represent in
terests which stand to lose about ST.
100000 II the states suits against them
succeed. If they are pushed, il is al
most certain that they will succeed, be-
cause the Court Of Appeals's Santa
Clara decision was pretty strongly in
favor OF the state.
why does Colonel Barbour's COM
mittee want TO restore a system that
,,,ktfei,,