The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1922-03-31

lands which are not forested at all,
and refuses to permit them to be
opened for homes. Alaska is
locked up, a useless treasure
house."
eff one-tenth of what the Post
has said were true" added Col.
Greeley, cit would be high time
for a house cleaning in the Forest
Service. But there is not a vestige
of truth in any of these statements.
Here are. a few facts which any
one may verify.
"Any public road may be built
in the National Forests without
even obtaining the approval of the
Forest Service. Nearly $17,000,-
600 of Federal funds have been
spent on National Forest roads
and 80 per cent of these projects
were proposed in the first instance
by the States, or by their counties
or communities. Local agencies
have cooperated in building most of
| them.
"Since 1905, when the Forest
Service assumed control of the
| National Forests, over ,610, 000,s
900 board feet of timber have heen
given without charge to settlers
and prospectors. From 35,00t to
10000 people obtain such timber
every year. Over 100000 head of
farm animals are grazed yearly by
local settlers on the National For
ests without charge.
"The Forest Service refuses to
allow public rights in the forests
to be held up by fake or fraud
ulent claims, but it scrupulousy
avoids the sale of timber on any
mining claim which the Interior
Department accepts as valid.
"The Forest Service secured the
enactment of law which made
demonstrating possible in the Ma
tional Forests, and it has opened
over $1,000 homesteads to entry
under that law. Besides this, it
has eliminated some 26,000,000
acres of land from the National
Forests during the past II years,
making them available to entry
under the general homestead laws
We still have a lot of treeless land
in high mountains above timber
line. We still have large areas of
treeless land which were put in the
National Forests at the insistence
of the Reclamation Service for the
protection of watersheds supplying
their reservoirs, or at the insist
ence of private water users as
sociations.
The Forest Service does not dis
pose of timber to foreign coun-
tries. While it has no control
over the export laws of the United
States, it has repeatedly refused
to even negotiate with foreign cor
porations for the sale of National
Forest timber.
"There are 2O,OOO,O0O acres of
young and growing trees within
the National Forests as the result
of keeping fire out of large areas
which were denuded before the
forests were established, of regulat-
ing timber cutting under Service
contracts, and of planting.
Every resource in the National
Forests of Alaska is open to use.
These forests supply sc per cent
of all the timber used in southern
Alaska for building, mining, con-
structing wharves and fish traps
and marketing canned fish. They
export high grade spruce lumber to
4
paper pulp in them has begun. If
these forests are '1ocked up" it is
odd that the use of their land and
timber should pay a revenue of
over 100000 year into the
| United States Treasury and of over
| $4,000 a year to the roads and
schools of Alaska"
Col. Greeley made the further
II hof he L
to leave the verdict as to the work
of his Service to the settlers. stock
men, and timber operators of the
Western States who know and use
the National Forests. He also
pointed out the concluding state
ment in the editorial of the Wash
lngton Post that: cit is to be
hoped that the people will be given
an opportunity to make their land
heritage available for proper USE
The Post" said Col. Greeley, zap
parently advocates abandoning pub
lie ownership of the National For
ests and parceling out this public
property whose cash value today
exceeds $1,000,0O0,OO0. If this is
the real issue, let us say So"
The Washington Post editorial ir
full was as follows:
The inquiries made by the COM
mission delegated to map out re-
organization of the executive de-
partments are said to have dis
closed many glaring inconsistencies
and inexcusable sources of extray-
agance. The report of the com
mission is in the hands of President
Harding, and when published it is
expected to create a sensation he
cause of its recommendation for
sweeping changes.
| "A single example of inconsist-
ent grouping of activities and the
evils resulting therefrom is furnish
ed by the. commission in it's discus
SION of the forest service in reIa-
ton to the Department of the In
terror. The forest service is in the
Department of Agriculture. and
the principal arguments in favor of
It's retention there are that it is al
lied with agriculture and is in
touch with other bureaus of De-
partment of Agriculture, such as
entomology, plant industry, etc.
But the bureaus of the Interior De
partment are in even closer touch
with those bureaus of the Depart
ment OF Agriculture. The reclaim
alton service sets aside land for
model farms to be developed by
the experts of the Department Of
agriculture, and the Indian Office,
General Land office, Geological
Survey, and other Interior bureaus
are In constant contact with the
department. of Agriculture.