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Show EARLY EFFORTS TO PROTECT PUBLIC TIMBERLANDS 547 than of the timber agents. Williamson contended that the net of $154,373 was little more than the value of the timber on 5,000 acres (again a considerable exaggeration).46 Men without any apparent legal or forestry experience that would fit them for their new duties were rapidly appointed by the Commissioner and sent into the three Lake States, all the southern public land states, California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado, and Montana. They were particularly cautioned to keep their appointments and objectives to themselves and not to reveal them to the surveyors general or the local land officers for if the latter were implicated in any way in timber stealing they could make it impossible to gather evidence of fraud. The timber agents were not to enter into any compromise with depredators and were to be most guarded and discreet. It was no difficult task to find clear instances of depredations on the public lands, but to secure witnesses who would willingly appear in court to testify, and to get the necessary court orders for seizure of the logs or lumber and to hold them until the trial was over was not easy.47 Williamson's first report of the results of this burst of activity was impressive. In Louisiana, 100,000 logs had been seized, most of which had been sold, but a large 46 S. Ex. Doc, 56th Cong., 1st and 2d sess., Vol. 1 (Serial No. 1780) , No. 9, pp. 6-9. 47 As was to be expected there were quick repercussions in Congress from the seizures and fines. The Board of Trade of Mobile condemned the "totally unnecessary, arbitrary" and reckless actions, declared that they would stop the mills from operating and throw thousands of workers out of employment and "inflict widespread financial ruin ... on every branch of business on this Gulf Coast." Another party declared that the southern coast of Mississippi was in a state of blockade, threatening the industry on which 20,000 people depend. "Two days hence, five thousand women and children will want bread and meat, and be confronted with starvation." The hyperbole is obvious. Cong. Record, 45th Cong., 1st sess., Nov. 16, 1877, p. 444. proportion of them had to be bought at the sale by government representatives because of a combination to keep the price down. In Minnesota juries awarded the government the value of logs in booms in 19 cases, 25 indictments were found by grand juries, and guilty pleas were entered in three cases. Farther west the demand for railroad ties and mining timbers had induced numerous individuals to cut on public lands. From all these and other investigations and legal actions Williamson expected the government would recover $100,000.48 In 1878, the last year the Department was free of restrictive legislation hampering the prosecution of trespassers, the Commissioner reported eight indictments in California involving the cutting of 54,070 trees having an estimated value of $84,899; in Florida 16 indictments had been obtained involving the cutting of 6,400 logs, 1,400,000 feet of lumber, the making of 26,000 barrels of rosin and 100 barrels of turpentine with a total value of $111,800. In Louisiana 3,066,000 feet of lumber and 122,504 logs had been seized, one defendant had confessed judgment, and $30,281 had been realized from the sale of logs and lumber. In Minnesota nine persons had confessed judgment. Elsewhere in Colorado, Wisconsin, Mississippi, and Arkansas large-scale trespassing was reported and investigations were being pushed.49 Williamson was not primarily concerned with the gross returns resulting from the flurry of investigations, seizures, fines and sales, but with ending the widespread practice of stealing timber from the public lands by making the risks too great. The kind of sporadic, ill-planned, and semi-hidden cutting the plunderers carried on was extremely wasteful and destructive. Speculators were gaining ownership of 4BGLO Annual Report, 1877, pp. 16-23. 48 GLO Annual Report, 1878, pp. 122-24. |