company would contest each entry on the ground that it was more valuable for its timber than for agricultural purposes. Rather than run any risk of a lawsuit with the gigantic corporation, the settlers, who were all poor persons, gave up their claims. As the Act of March 2, 1899, required the company to file a new list to lands that had been selected prior to survey, within 90 days after the survey of the township had been approved, Frederick A. Kribs became aware of this fact, and his stand-in with the Register and Receiver of the Roseburg Land Office enabled him to work a clever scheme on the Northern Pacific and beat the corporation out of more than 20,000 acres of fine timber land.
Kribs knew that as soon as the survey of the township was approved the Northern Pacific would be obliged to file an amended selection, under the term of the Act of March 2, 1899, heretofore quoted. He therefore placed in the hands of Register J. T. Bridges and Receiver J. H. Booth a selection list in his own name, covering the entire township, with instructions for those officers to file the same as soon as the Northern Pacific withdrew its base for the purpose of amendment, in order to conform with the strict lines of the new survey. By keeping in close touch with the survey before the official plat was filed in the Land Office, Kribs had been enabled to secure an accurate description of the lands he wanted, so that when the Northern Pacific withdrew its selection for the purpose of amendment, the officers of the Roseburg Land Office permitted Kribs's selection to have the right of way, and the bold operator thus became the owner of more than 23,000 acres of choice yellow fir timber land, easily worth $50 an acre, at a cost of $6 an acre—the price of the scrip. It is believed that the Northern Pacific now has in view another base project, almost equally as brazen as its successful effort in connection with the Mt. Rainier National Park scheme. This contemplates the conversion of Mt. St. Helens into a National Park, and the consequent creation of more lieu for the railway corporation. This high peak was originally outside the limits of the Rainier Mountain Forest Reserve, but has since been included therein, and it begins to look as if it were omitted intentionally at first for some ulterior purpose of the character indicated. The fact is, the Northern Pacific finds itself running short of lieu, and something like this has to be done in order to relieve the congestion. Besides, what is the use of keeping a lot of hired men around without any visible means of support?
No plausible reason exists why Mt. St. Helens should not have been included in the Rainier Mountain Forest Reserve in the first place. It was only separated from the southwestern boundary of the old limits by a single township, as the map shows, and as the company owns the odd-numbered sections surrounding it for many miles, and as there are all kinds of golden opportunities to get in on the ground floor with a lot of jokers of the kind that are very much in evidence in the Act of March 2, 1899, the country can expect something in the shape of a duplicate of the Mt. Rainier National Park scheme sooner or later.
It is claimed that all these high peaks in the Northwestern country were active volcanoes during prehistoric days, and if indications count for anything, they are still gifted with eruptive tendencies in the way of belching forth enormous benefits for great and greedy corporations.
At the time I was taken to Washington as a witness for the Government in the case against Binger Hermann, an episode occurred that bears out the ideas I have undertaken to convey herein. On December 27, 1906, I published a statement in the Portland Morning Oregonian, foreshadowing an attack in my forthcoming book upon the methods pursued by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company regarding the Rainier Mountain Forest Reserve steal. That was sufficient notice to put the "faithful" on guard, so that when I reached the National capital in March, 1907, my coming had been anticipated in that respect. Upon arrival there I gave out an interview in the local press, to the effect that it was my intention to take advantage of the situation and gather material for the book, and this was the signal for all hands to be on the alert.
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