The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1856-01-05
Trc.pa,,er, on the school Lands. !.

TrcspaSscrs ON the School Lands. 4
Under this caption the St. Anthony Ex-
press has the following well-timed and prop
erly expressed remarks. ,s4ssss
Having spoken, to, the same point few
weeks since, We are pleased to find our neigh
Dor taking SO much interest in this import
ant matter. Why should not the press of
the Territory generally speak out upon this
question in that decided manner which its
Importance demands? Read what the Ex-
press says:
In all parts of the Territory, yet penctra-
ted by settlers, the school lands have been
| taken and improved in the same manner as
other lands. There has been apparently no
| hesitation in entering upon them, cutting
wood and timber, building fences and houses
and, in some instances, in laying out town
sites. Claims upon school lands have
market value like all others and are bought
and sold. In the pineries the lumbermen
do not pause at the lines of a school section,
! but proceed to cut and haul the timber from
it, just as they would do from any other of
| their own, or of the government land. AT
the same time, the Legislature has enacted
| that whoever shall enter on these lands and
cut timber, or otherwise injure them, shall
be liable to severe penalties of fines and i'm
prisonment. In fact, no man can settle on
them without committing trespass.
| If there are any officers, who are charged
with the duty of taking notice of these vio-
lations of the law, that duty for the most
part is evidently not performed. The acts
of trespass are daily occurring before our
eyes with perfecf IMMUNITY. Pine timber
to the amount of thousands of dollars, has
been taken off, and so much of our school
fund lost forever. How will such vandalism
| look to coming generations who will turn
back to search for the origin of this fund
We presume the occupants of the farming
lands are awaiting the time, when, under
State regulations, by means of political leg
erdemain, they can obtain the right to buy
up their farms by presumption, at nominal
advance over the minimum price of U. S.
lands. They care nothing for the interest
of education; SO they can enrich themselves
Some of these lands will he worth, by the
time the State will wish to offer them for
sale, 500 per acre; and most of them from
$40 to $50. Yet who expects ever to pay
these prices. 1t is true the Government will
have the staff in it's own hands, and can Sc
cure the full value of the lands. But the
danger is that by some means or other, they
will pass into private hands at sacrifice,
through trick of legislation. Much the
safest way would be, to keep them clear of
squatters by the prompt enforcement of the
laws that we have made for their protection,
and which would not have been made, had
there not been some reason for that protec-
ton. Let the proper officers be required to
arrest at once each and every trespasser, and
in the case of the pineries, subject him to
penalties in their full extent. 1t is hardly
more criminal to set fire to school houses,
or to rob the school treasury of money than
to waste beforehand or to appropriate at less
than their future value, the school lands
The fund to be realized from these lands
will be no mean element of the glory and
renown of our future State. After having
done the best we can, the proceeds will be
small enough to secure to each of the thou
sands of children yet to spring up here, the
benefits of free education.
| In the State of Wisconsin, there seems to
have been adopted an unwise and short
sighted policy with respect to the DISPOSE
ton of the lands she received from the gov
eminent for school purposes. In pursuance
of the action Of the legislature, more than
$4,000 acres of the choicest farming lands
in the State were sold to private parties at
81, 25 per acre, on credit of from ten to
thirty years, with interest at per ct. per
annum. Many Of these lands lie in counties
that are beginning to be settled, and where
they will rise rapidly in value in the course
of the next five years. 1t is not too much
to say, that at the end of that period, they
could have been sold for SIS per acre, cash.
We trust not to see such trifing in Minneso-
ia. Let us make every acre count. Let us
manage this portion of our heritage as pru-
dent land holder would manage his own
property; and not squander by indifference
and recklessness, what belongs to those, who
shall fill and refill our places, long after we
shall have joined the dead.