Page:Pacific Monthly volumes 9 and 10.djvu/128

 been swindled and had paid for claims which were worthless. When they sold their land, three or four years later, for about $2,000 for each Quarter section, they were well satisfied, and the locator was again in favor. Last summer he cruised a tract of timber, and had no difficulty in getting over three hundred men to take the claims, each paying him $100 for locating, besides the price of the land to the Govern- ment, and the expense of a three hun- dred mile journey to view the timber. In the latter case there is no more evi-

THE MASSIVE LOGS LOADED ONTO TRUCKS AND STARTED ON THEIR JOURNEY TO FAR

DISTANT POINTS

Photo by Darius Kiusey, Sedro-H'ooliey, IVash.

dence than in the former that he is working for some company. In the crit- icisms of the local land offices and the methods of lumbermen, current for sev- eral months, this legitimate work of locators has not received the considera- tion which should have been given it. In the newspaper articles regarding fraudulent timber entries it has not been noticed. It is no more illegal for one to borrow money for the purpose of purchasing one hundred and sixty acres of timl)er land as an investment than it is to borrow money to buy a farm or a town lot. But it is illegal for one to make an agreement, stated or implied, with the lender of this money that the land shall be sold to him or to any person designated, or that he shall have any interest whatsoever in the net proceeds from the sale of the timber.

A great deal of fine timber land has been taken up under the homestead law by men who had no mtention of making a home,or of keeping the spirit or the letter of the law. A rude cabin is usually built by such fraudulent homesteader, the underbrush cut away around it, so that he can say he has "cleared" the land; sometimes a few potatoes are put in the ground in the Spring, as a pretence for a crop; a visit is made to the cabin once in six months, the entryman seldom staying more than one night ; and a special trip is made whenever there is an election, that by voting in the precinct he may have some proof to offer that he has made it his home. At thj&>end of iour-