Great Lakes Patrol assigned to operate against criminals who were ravaging the logging industry. These so called timber pirates conducted illegal cutting of timber on federal land and then smuggled the valuable commodity out of the area in order to sell it. The areas most affected were in the western Great Lakes region, along the coasts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota. Much of these forested areas controlled by the government were reserved for the building of new warships. The illegal timber trade centered on Chicago and Milwaukee. It was nearly as violent as the alcohol trade, which was carried out over the
Fountain of the Great Lakes years earlier and rekindled with the Ferguson bequest. "Fountain of the Great Lakes" was a major career accomplishment for Taft, which propelled him beyond the level of a portraitist. The general opinion of "Fountain of the Great Lakes" was positive with some describing it as a cultural achievement for Taft and Chicago. The detractors conceded that as a figural composition, it was ideal in an Old World way. Critics voiced concern over the sculpture's confusion and decorum. One of the basic problems for the critics was the propriety of the symbolism of artistic and attractive bronze figures posed as bodies