The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 5, 1901, Page 1

L4 . VOLUME XO-NO. 66, &Y L P " oy T SAN FRANCISCO, MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1901. PRICE FIVE CENTS. BIG BASIN PARK COMBINE IS FORMED TO MAK Timber Lands Are Cornered in Extensive Tracts by Sapient men in Advance Santa Cruz Lumber- of Official Selection Plan Ripens Under a Plea of Preserving Sequoia Which Is Potential to Bring Harvest of Golden Coin to Projectors — LARGE PROFIT FROM THE STATE e Faked Pictures Are Employed to Deceive Legislators When Great Appropriation, Amounting to $250,000, Is Being Sought Names of Influential Citizens Are Used Without Authority at tate’s Capital to Influence Holders of Public Purse - S - E3 v { | | oCoeE9000 900208000 0C000 60800000080000000090090000TC00RE0000008 booconocoooa o o 5 s | ° { ° - | ° ° B < | ¢ . S | . ° -3 3 8 - 1 b | H ° i H ° | ° . { ° ° | . 1% 1545 | | | | | 2P SAOWING X TTON “ oF PROTEJSSED 0. A A ‘ S SYON 1 ST | R | X | , | THRIJS rCENETNoT TacR TRor | TN . BAJIN WA S JSEINNEFER VIRENS ! TIED To PER TPAMPHIET " AESY JL%ADE _'E'.!?]’T FITED ;DR UOLATL IMAGINAT- £ 5 =IOTr | Fi6 i ‘ PICcTUBED T JEMPER VIRENS ¢ s NOoT I1T TFAMPHLET BUT I}IQ 3 s i — - L -+ MAP SHOWING THE LOCATION OF THE BIG BASIN IN SANTA CRUZ COUNTY ; ALSO PICTURES REPRODUCED FROM DELUSIVE PAMPHLET. ) Lon £ s =2 & L 2 2 - - - - AT responsibility is about | ber Company. Nothing was mentioned at [ organized literature was issued. In a | Basin country, which their adverse action | the Sempervirens Club came into tke|choice tract of redwood timber on sec- | virens Club to the Legislature. Fourteen devolve upon the California | S8acramento concerning inaccessibility | pamphlet signed by Charles Wesley Reed | might dry up. Then, also, the sympathy | fleld to buy the Big Basin. The date of | tlon 24 of township 8, range 3 west, ad- | thousand acres, he told the Legislature Park Co on. | when Governor Gage, choosing between | of this city, an attorney, who is also the | of the legislators was invoked by pictures | incorporation puts this beyond question. | joining the Basin, consisting of 640 acres. | last winter, could be bought for $500,000. terms of the act of he appropriation asked for and the con- | president of the club, an appeal was made | showing the terrible devastation which | In addition the options that have been se- | The assessment roll shows that this is | That Is at the rate of about $5 75 per Legislature it is about | tinuation of the work of the California | to the Lej ature for an apportionment { was threatened or had already been | cured give the company control, for the | put in at $7680, which is at the rate of Slzl n connection d selection except the | he northern part in this week, | sts of the Semper- | v ess all signs fail lhD\'j wi scheme to sell to the | Btate 2 of timber at $190 per mere of $125,000. The greater will be urged upon the Commis acceptance at the price named h: been slready quietly gathered in by the B Basin Lumber Compary, a Santa Cruz corporation, having stockholders judi- | ciously distributed “where they can do good.” The Big Basin Lumber | was incorporated April 24, 1900. | Among the purposes enumerated in its articles of incorporation are that it shall’| buy and sell real estate, and its place of | business is at Boulder Creek. By a singu- | lar coincidence the very next week, name- on May 1, 1900, some one succeeded in assembling & number of . studious and | well-meaning ladies and gentlemen at | Stanford University, where, according to the inspired literature of the period, “the first organized effort toward the preserva- tion of the Big Basin” took root. Since then the Sempervirens Club has been in existence as the result of the meeting at Stanford University. Perhaps any other organization which had a seemingiy com- mendable object in view could have been just as easily formed. Activity at Santa Cruz. No one, sgemingly, at the first meeting, or at any subscquent gathering of the ac- tive portion of the Sempervirens Club’s executive committee, ever called attention to the fact that the Big Basin country is 50 remote from all centers of population that nineteen-twentieths of the citizens of California, who will have to foot the bills, would never visit it. Indeed, one will not at this time hear any allusion to that very palpable fact at Santa Cruz, where there is great activity on the part of interested parties to pave the way for rounding-up the Commissioners this week and netting & bandsome profit for the Big Basin Lum- 4 owners a clean profit of the 2500 acres which foners for 1y, | pervirens Club had been perfected. Many FIRSTVOWAGE | Water and Forest Association in conjune- ; tion with the work of the Geological Sur- vey of the United States Government in | this State, calmly presented to the public | what looks suspiciously like a gold brick. The crusade in favor of Big Basin was | pushed after the organization of the Sem- | estimable ladies and gentlemen have be- | come members of the club, being fond of | natural scenery and having been per- | suaded by others to lend their names. Very few of them have any knowledge of | the Big Basin cxcept by hearsay. Names of prominent gentlemen have been used without authority in connection with the official board of the Sempervirens Club for | the weight they carry. Literature Is Issued. i After the Sempervirens Ciub was well | B R e e S - | | OF THE BIGBEST SHIP IN WORLD Celtic Runs From Liver-| pool to New York in Slow Time. i Average Speed on Trip Is 1495 Knots, Although She Can Make 16.50. NEW YORK, Aug. 4.—The biggest ship | in the world, the Celtic, of the White Star line, reached her dock here to-day on her maiden voyage. Her time from Liverpool was eight days and forty-six minutes. As she is berthed her steerage deck is higher than the entrance to the pier. After she was warped in the iron doors of the aft cabins had to be opened to land passeng- ers. Three hundred and forty-five cabin and 268 steerage passengers came over on the vessel. It was intended that the big liner should make marvelous time on this trip. Her average speed was 14.95 knots, although she is able to log 16.50 knots an hour. I of from $250,000 to $500,00. Under one cap- tion the following occurs over Reed's sig- nature as president: Seventh—We propose a $500,000 park because that will include all of the 14,000 acres in the Big Basin. This forest is surrounded by a range of hills and it is because of the difficulty of access that it has not been despolled. Eighth—We asked for an appropriation of $250,000 because this amount of money will buy a solid tract of 5000 acres suitable for a park. This is the least acreage, according to our estimate, that will fulfill the requirements of a State park and include the holdings of the lumbermen who have gobbled up nearly all the finest and most beautiful timber, ete. Fixing a Big Price. These extracts are given partly for the essential reason that they fix an outside value of $50 per acre for 5000 acres, which the club hoped to acquire. The preseni asking price of the Big Basin Lumber Company is §100 per acre. Mr. Reed rep- resented that the lumber men had beén conferred with and that “they required $25,000 down, which would be forfeited if the whole sum demanded was not after- ward paid.”” Presumably from this the Sempervirens Club’s executive commit- tee had taken pains to ascertain some- | thing about the real value of the land. But there are several other matters in connection with the pamphlet presented with Mr. Reed's signature as president of the Sempervirens Club, which now be- comes of interest in view of the price asked by the Big Basin Lumber Company. One is the fact that the pamphlet con- tains several misrepresentations. In the first place there are not 14,000 acres in the Big Basin in Santa Cruz County, but barely 4000. Another point of Interest is the significant assertion that “we believe that we shall be able to raise enough money to save the rest of the Basin (out- side of the 5000 acres) if it should be threatened in the future.” If this means anything it means that more land may be sought for later. It is already seen that if the Big Basin Lumber Company gets what | 1t is after the $250,000 will not “buy a solid tract of 5000 acres for a park,” but only one-half of that area at $100 per acre. Not in the Basin. Another singular fact is that in the pamphlet pictures of localities not In the Big Basin were published to influence leg- islators who are fond of trees. The men who made the laws were asked to gaze on the pictured beauties of a very foamy series of waterfalls on Big Creek. That creek is not in the Basin, but is some miles distant. The text left the forest- loving Senators and Assemblymen to be- lieve that they saw a waterfall in the Big caused. ‘Desolation,” der one of the cuts, “takes the place of the forest primeval.” Another cut, faked from some locality outside of the Big Ba- sin had the captlon, “The forest laid low. The lumbermen are cutting on the right. They have not been able to buy the sec- tion on the left.”” As a matter of fact no timber has been cut in the Big Basin proper. The Union Mill cut some timber on a ridge, getting down all that would pay and then quit work many months says a caption un- ago. The area cut was from sixty to sev- enty acres, according to credible wit- nesses. Commission Has Liberty. The bill that was passed by the Legis- lature and was signed by Governor Gage left the Redwood Park Commission entire- ly free handed. There are no restrictions placed upon the expenditure of the $250,000 of the State's money, except that it is to be paid out only in five annual install- ments of $50,000 each, payable on January 1 of each year, until all is pald, beginning January 1, 1902. No county is"indicated as the site of the park. Section 3 of the act provides: Sec. 3.—The commission shall have the power to purchase such land or any portion thereof, or it may proceed by action at law in the Su- perfor Court to condemn the same or any por- tion thereof in the name of the people of the State of California. The commission may also receive contributions from any source for the purchas_e of additional lands and the care and maintenance of lands and forests under Its charge. This act does not go into effect until January 1, 1%02.° The commission will, therefore, have time yvet to consider. Since the passage of the act making the appropriation and appointing the Rea- wood Park Commission to spend it, the Big Basin Lumber Company, organized just before the agitation in favor of pur- chasing the Big Basin was begun, and which has never done anything toward cutting any of the trees in the Big Basin, has been active in varfous ways. J. W. Forgeous, a Santa Cruz real estate man, who is one of the directors of the Big Ba- sin Lumber Company, has been hard at work, and as secretly as possible. Op- tions have been secured on several tracts which the company hopes to sell to the State at $100 per acre. The present hold- ings of the company in the Big Basin amount of 1217.50 acres, as revealed by a careful study of the maps, assessment roll, etc., in the office of the Assessor of Santa Cruz County. All Recently Acquired. The entire tract has been acquired since purpose of sale, of about 700 acres more, including a tract owned by Timothy Hop- kins, adjoining the body of land charged to the Big Basin Lumber Company. The oweners of other tracts in the Blg Basin may also be persuaded to unite with the company in offering their timber to the State, so that when the Commissioners come along the entire tract they are to select will have bheen genteelly picked out for them to accept and pay for when the money is available. The incorporators of the Big Basin Lum- ber Company were H. L. Middleton of Boulder Creek, B. F. Brissac of San Fran- cisco, E. A. Middleton of Boulder Cree J. W. Forgeous of Santa Cruz, A. M. An- thony of Boulder Creek, Franklin Waters of Boulder Creck and Jacob Levi Jr. of San Francisco. The articles show chat the corporation’s capitalized stock was $180,000, and that the board of directors were the same persons as the incorpora- tors, and that each director subscribed for five shares of stock. Big Profit in Sight. The amount of profit that can be real- ized by selling to the State 2500 acres at $100 per acre, is problematical, but that there is big money in it for some one at that rate is evident. For years:the property has had only a specuiative value, for the reason that the land is so Inac- cessible that the Jumberman has never considered that it would be profitable to cut it. Otherwise it would have been cut long ago, as the scores of denuded hills in Santa Clara County attest. Lumber- men have no sentiment concerning big trees, or any other kind of trees that are profitable to them, only when such trees are cut down. The Southern Pacific Com- pany is reported to have surveyed a line into the Big Basin some years. ago, but the line has never been constructed. Ex- pectation of such a line would not figura much in the speculative value of lumber when shrewd men like those in the Eig Basin Lumber Company were in the mar- ket as purchasers, or as securing options on the land for their own advantage. All considerations being taken together, there is no' doubt that the average price per acre for a tract of 2500 acres, so- situated and so long inaccessible to profitable lym- bering, has been low to the Big Basin Lumber Company. What they have pald they, of course, will not tell. But there is a way to estimate the value, approx: mately, by turning to the books of the Assessor of Santa Cruz County. What Assessments Show. Expert lumbermen agree that the Henry Cowell Lime and Cement Company has a | per acre. Taking tracts in the vicinity assessed in seven pieces to Timothy Hop- kins, it will be seen that the highest as- sessment is on two tracts of 320 acres each, the value figured out by the As- sessor in each case being $30 per acre. Of course there is a variation in the value of timber land where it can be profitably cut over. The assessment per acre on the Big Basin Lumber Company’s holdings in the Big Basin has been raised and it aver- ages $54 per acre. Other lands have about held their old values. Nothing has taken place to increase the value of the Big Basin Lumter Company’s holding except the chance of selling them to the State. In this connection interest again at- taches to the statements heretofore al- luded to, which were made by Charles Wesley Reed as president of the Semper- @ ittt @ MOB COMPLETES ITSWORK IN STATE OF MISSISSIPP Negro Suspected of Mur- der Taken and Shot to Death. Body Left Riddled With Bul- lets and a Rope Around the Neck. CARROLLTON, Mis Aug. 4.-The armed mob which has been in the Talia- | | invited to go along. The party will camp ferro’ neighborhood for two days looking for Sallle Layton and others some time during last night killed Will Price, a ne- gro, who worked for Mr. Taliaferro and lived within 200 yards of his residence. He was found dead on the road on Duke's place this morning, some distance from any trees or anything to which to hang any one, with a rope around his neck and mutilated by bullets. The verdict was: “Came to his death at the hands of un- known persons.” It is said that he went to the Taliaferro resldence yesterday and told Jack Talia- ferro all about the murder i | I | | 1 acre. Five thousand acres could be bought for $25¢ acre. 000, which is at the rate of $50 per Supposing the Big Basin land to have a specnlative average value through- out of $50 per acre, it will be seen that the combination known as the Big Basin Lumber Company has a chance to make $125,000 ‘“‘easy money’ at $100 per acre— thus taking one-half of the State’s ap- propriation for their profits Location of Basin. The Big Basin in Santa Cruz County is in three townships—9 S, R. 3 W.; 8 S.. R. 3 W, and 9 S., R. 4 W. Through it run several branches of Waddell Creek. The surface is very rough for the most part, although there is some compara- tively flat land. It lies between steep ridges and the floor of the Easin is broken by ridges. There are no sawmills opsr- ating in the Basin. In fact there is not | one there. The heavy timber in ‘the Basin is in township 9-3 and two sections and a one-half section in $-3. There may | be 4000 acres of iand in the area, of which possibly 80 per cent is timbered. The best timber is in 9-3. There is a road into the Basin and some trails. Last year the Sempervirens Club went into the Basin and camped and saw the best timber there. No tree that they saw is twenty-two feet in diameter above the ground, but there is one eighteen feet in diamcter. The twenty-two-foot tree is another fiction In the pamphlet issued for Legislative per- suasion. A map that has been prepared shows the holdings that the Big Basin Lumber Company has acquired since the Semper- virens Club began the agitation for pur-. chase. The Timothy Hopkins land in sec- tion 6 of 9-3 is under option and also sec- tion 1 of 9-4. The Redwood Park Commissioners are expected to go to the Big Basin with an excursion party organized by the Semper- virens Club, and an advisory committes consisting of W. W. Van Arsdale, Robert Dollar, Hervey Lindley, General Chipman and Senator George C. Perkins has been ten days in the Basin under the manage- ment of the Sempervirens Club. The members of the commission are Governor Gage, ex-officlo; Professor W. R. Dudley of Stanford University, A. W. Foster, Father Kenna of Santa Clara and | W. H. Mills. Prince Henry of Orleans Improving. PARIS, Aug. 4—The Duc de Chartress, father of Prince Henrl d’Orleans, has re- ceived the following dispatch from Sai- gon: “Slightly better. Hope is again felt.”