Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1878.djvu/14

XII were not hindered in providing for their actual necessities, and that the measures of the department were directed only against a class of persons who made the unlawful taking and selling of timber from the public lands in large quantities a regular business and a source of profit to themselves. In several States, especially in the South, the local authorities were resorted to by interested parties for the purpose of hampering and baffling the efforts of this department by a variety of expedients, in some instances not without effect. In spite of these difficulties it may be said that, in some parts of the country at least, the depredations on the timber lands of the United States have already been greatly limited in extent. But we cannot close our eyes to the fact that anything like complete success in suppressing these unlawful practices is impossible, unless the efforts made by this department for the protection of the public property meet with hearty co-operation on the part of the legislative branch of the government. Actual experience enables me to say that the want of such co-operation has been and will always be an encouragement to the depredators to persist in their lawless operations and to defy the authorities.

As to the importance of this subject I shall add but little to what I said in my last annual report. The disastrous consequences which always follow the destruction of the forests of a country are known to every well-informed man. These consequences will inevitably come upon us in a comparatively short period of time, considering the rapidity with which the timber growth of this country is being swept away, unless legislation be adopted systematically to arrest this indiscriminate spoliation. In accordance with the suggestions which, in this respect, I offered in my last annual report, a bill was introduced in the Senate (Senate bill No. 609) which provides that all timber-bearing lands, chiefly valuable for the timber upon them, shall be withdrawn from sale or other disposition under existing laws, and be held by the government with a view to preventing indiscriminate destruction and waste, and to the preservation of the young timber and the reproduction of the forests. The bill further provides ample means by which settlers on the public lands and miners can procure timber and firewood to supply their wants, with or without the soil, at minimum rates. It also provides for the sale of timber at reasonable prices for manufacturing purposes and for export. It finally provides for the appointment of a number of officers to execute its provisions under the direction of this department.

While I have no doubt that this bill may be improved in many respects, I adhere to the opinion that it is practicable and that its enactment into a law and its faithful execution would bring a large revenue into the Treasury, while averting from this country very disastrous experiences and securing great and lasting benefits to our people. This bill was not acted upon at the last session of Congress, and I again invite to it that attention which the importance of this great public interest merits.

While no legislation applicable to all parts of the country with regard