But to all this the people submitted. not as criminals. for they were pursuing their occupations under the tenure of their settlement in the country. under the regulations and by the tacit consent of many Secretaries. including my friend from Ohio. [Mr. Cox.] And it was to them and to myself an astounding thing when this obsolete statute was dug up from obscurity and enforced with a hardship and rigor that. if persisted in. must depopulate. not only our Territory but all the Territories. unless Congress steps in with some legislation. and we have tried so often in vain to get some legislation to allow people to get timber legally that we are almost discouraged. In its absence what are we to do t If the Secretary persists in the policy that he has inaugurated. it is simply a notice to the people of the Territories to quit. for all the mines from the Black Hills to California to shut down . to stop the developments of the West and the reclamations of the desert lands. and to let the grass grow in the streets of the thriving Western cities. to stop the emigrant on his way to make a new home with a notice posted on every road to the West "Private premises of the Department of the Interior. No trespassing on these grounds." Now. I askyou if it is a sound policy to stop the twentylive thousand people who. in Montana. are. by the pursuit of laborious and hazardous occupations. adding to your stock of precious metals $5.000.000. or the five hundred thousand who. in all time Territories and mining States. are producing $70.000.000 a year?
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emigrant