Public Lands

In former years considerable maladministration of the public lands by the Department of the Interior has been charged. During the Taft administration Secretary of the Interior Ballinger found it convenient to resign. From then until "Teapot Dome" there was comparative pease. Now the Senate feels that a committee had best be sent out to scout for possible festering grievances, which might later embarrass the Administration. During the past fortnight the investigation (by the Senate Committee on Public Lands) got under way.

At Salt Lake City. Last week Senator Stanfield, Chairman of the Senate Land Committee, accompanied by Senators Kendrick of Wyoming and Cameron of Arizona, commenced a hearing at Salt Lake City of cattlemen's grievances against the Department of the Interior, and more especially against its "system of charging fees to stockraisers on the public land."

The witnesses were picturesque. Almost without exception they were well along in years--men who had spent the best part of their lives in hard riding on the range and in hard drinking afterwards, bronzed and heavy-handed titans.

One Hagenbarth, stockman, was the first witness. Said he: "The livestock men demand that their rights on the nationally owned ranges shall be recognized, defended and protected; and that such rights shall be based on established priority and preference at the time the law now in force was passed ... 20 odd years ago." He continued that at that time the rangers had "just put their heads into a noose" when they concluded with Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania, then Chief Forester, an agreement whereby the users of the range pledged themselves to pay "a fee sufficient to bear the cost of administration." "Today," he added, "the fee is three times that cost . . . and autocratically administered." He declared that the rangers want a grazing fee based on an acreage not a per-head basis; and a definite standing before the law. "Governor Pinchot," he declared, "is an idealist who is sometimes practical, and who is given to being a little ruthless." "In my judgment 25% of the cattlemen have been absolutely wiped out by present conditions on the range, and 90% of the others are staggering under a load of debt."

Another witness, Mr. Bixby, testified that "everybody who sees a nice tree seems to start a cry for a new public park."

The committee learnedly cogitated the question of trees versus livestock; and then moved with dignity into the leafy shade of the Yellowstone National Park.

At the Yellowstone. They found it stocked with shifty-eyed witnesses intent on the scalp of National Park Superintendent, Colonel H. M. Albright. A long day was spent in listening to stories told to his discredit. He was responsible, he heard, for an exhorbitant motorcar entrance fee of $7.50. Buffalo had died during the filming of The Thundering Herd. Favoritism had been shown to the neighboring Silver Tip Ranch owned by Thomas Cochran (Morgan Partner). Equipment had been loaned to utility companies. There was too much banqueting of Eastern dudes at government expense, etc., etc., etc.

Then the Colonel was called to the stand. Fighting mad, he spoke softly: "I have been on trial, all morning with convicted bootleggers, a quack doctor, a disgruntled ex-road foreman, an ex-ranger with a bad record, and other men with personal grievances testifying against me through the convenient method of leading questions from a man who assembled this group of malcontents. I appreciate the opportunity to make a statement in behalf of the administration of the park.

"Yellowstone National Park is as big as Delaware and Rhode Island combined. The Yellowstone Park is 80% heavily forested with spruce, fir and several varieties of pine.

"In the Yellowstone are more than 20,000 elk, 2,000 deer, over 800 buffalo, 500 moose, 600 big horn sheep, more than 400 antelope, hundreds of bears, and other animals without number.

'The Yellowstone is dedicated forever as pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of all the people. This statement is carved in eternal stone at the head of the great basaltic gateway here at the north entrance, and the words, 'For the benefit and enjoyment of the people,' are uppermost in the thoughts of those charged with the administration of the Yellowstone."

In summing up, the Colonel enumerated the extensive park facilities for tenting and bedding about 250,000 people per year. Then he disposed, with conclusive clarity, of the charges against him.

The Thomas Cochran ranch, for example, had originally been owned by a bear-hunter, Joseph (Frenchy) Duret, who poached on park animals. In 1922, a grizzly killed him. That summer Mr. Cochran, at the suggestion of the Colonel bought the ranch at a high price, in order to deliver from the hands of unsavory characters, to preserve for the happiness of wild life. Mr. Cochran (although reserving a little) turned over the control to the National Park Service, which has the use of the ranch today. Always Mr. Cochran has given far more than he has received.

When the Colonel had finished, the Senate Committee adjourned in silence, and that night left for Helena, Mont.