Squatters

When President Hoover bought 168 acres of land atop the Blue Ridge for $5 per acre, leased 2,000 acres more along the Rapidan and moved out to his camp for weekends, members of his Cabinet trailed along after him. They liked his selection of a resort. Last year, therefore, Attorney General Mitchell, Secretary of the Interior Wilbur and Secretary of Agriculture Hyde clubbed together to build a camp of their own about a mile below the President's. They were under the impression that all that country was soon to become a national preserve, so they did not bother .themselves much about legal details. As a result they found themselves last week involved in unfavorable publicity when the Madison Timber Corp., owner of the land on which they camp, accused them of being nothing better than squatters.

In a condemnation proceeding at Madison, Va. the lumber company officials swore that the Cabinet camp, with its four luxurious cabins costing $20,000, had been built without their permission, that no lease had been sought or signed. The Rapidan Marine force of 120 men under Major Earl Long had also squatted on their property for a year before bothering about a lease.* When timbermen tried to go on their own lands, they were seized by the officious Marine guards of the camp and escorted off by the seat of the pants. The lumber company had to pay taxes increased by improvements on their property which they could not even get to. Altogether the Government was pictured as putting over a dirty deal on private industry.

When President Hoover picked the Rapidan for his camp, he had no idea that his presence there would hurt, rather than help Virginia gather up private land to contribute as the Shenandoah National Park. The President's camp boomed mountainside values. The Madison Timber Corp., putting a $1,000,000 price on land sought by the State, argued that their property was worth it, not entirely as timber perhaps, but as a potential summer resort. The President, they claimed, had given the region priceless advertising and had put in an 8 mi. road worth $200,000. and power and telephone lines worth another $100,000. They insisted that the presidential improvements enlarged the value of their timber land far beyond what Virginia was ready to pay for it.

*Announced last week was a plan to cut the Marine Corps by 1,000 men to 16,500 to save $ 1,000,000.

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