thorny. Those who had been used to making personal profit from
free and unrestricted exploitation of the nation's natural
resources would look only with antagonism on a movement which put
a consideration of the general welfare first.

The Forest Service nevertheless put these principles immediately
into practical application. The National Forests were opened to a
regulated use of all their resources. A law was passed throwing
open to settlement all land in the National Forests which was
found to be chiefly valuable for agriculture. Hitherto all such
land had been closed to the settler. Regulations were established
and enforced which favored the settler rather than the large
stockowner. It was provided that, when conditions required the
reduction in the number of head of stock grazed in any National
Forest, the vast herds of the wealthy owner should be affected
before the few head of the small man, upon which the living of
his family depended. The principle which excited the bitterest
antagonism of all was the rule that any one, except a bona fide
settler on the land, who took public property for private profit
should pay for what he got. This was a new and most unpalatable
idea to the big stock and sheep raisers, who had been accustomed
to graze their animals at will on the richest lands of the public
forests, with no one but themselves a penny the better off
thereby. But the Attorney-General of the United States declared
it legal to make the men who pastured their cattle and sheep in
the National Forests pay for this privilege; and in the summer of
1906 such charges were for the first time made and collected. The
trained foresters of the service were put in charge of the
National Forests. As a result, improvement began to manifest
itself in other ways. Within two years the fire prevention work