from as far as possible, I paid no especial heed to the number or extent of fraudulent timber entries in any of the land districts. It was none of my business to undertake to expose any of these fraufiulent transactions, and I exceeded my authority in doing so; but the methods of these looters were too rank to go unnoticed altogether, and I considered that one of the fundamental aids to my own cause was in pointing out the manifest weaknesses of those I was seeking to deter from menacing the mining industry.
There is nothing quite so effective in the suppression of vice or wrongdoing in any form as wholesale exposure. Turn on the light of publicity and there is a general scurrying to cover of every instinct of rascality. I never knew it to fail, and the present instance was no exception.
At Redding I wrote a full report of my observations to State Mineralogist Anbury, covering all phases of the situation, and containing about 10.000 words. It was not only given a wide range of publicity through all the San Francisco newspapers, but copies were sent to President Roosevelt, Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock, Commissioner of the General Land Office Hermann, besides various civic organizations, including the Sacramento Valley Development Association, which had all along been a staunch ally of the State Mining Bureau in its efforts to prevent the iniquitous absorption of mining claims by timber speculators, and to suppress fraudulent land operations of whatsoever character. In addition, copious extracts from the report were made by the interior press of California, and for months its contents formed the subject matter for wide discussion.
Soon after returning to San Francisco from my trip, in the early part of December, 1902, I was informed by Mr. Aubury that Ex-Governor Andrew Page 428
