The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-05-11

difficult for any airminded man who reads the ac
companying evidence. and learns that system OF
combination which controls the results of public sales
in the West, to cast the slightest censure upon the
motives and conduct of the commissioners of SALE
We would not applaud their act as a precedent We
cannot condemn it as an individual case under the
circumstances. That they acted honestly. and. In
their judgment for the best interests of the govern
ment we have doubt; that their mode of sale was
beneficial to the public treasury we cannot question
on the evidence; but we trust that some plan may
be devised if practicable, for the future, that viii
combine all the advantages of free and unrestraned
competition, with the necessary safeguards for the
pubic interests.
Whilst such are our individual opinions it may be
proper to remark that no law has existed from the
origin of government to the present time, which
requires or even contempiates sale OF military
reservation Mt public auction. On the contrary the
legislation of Congress has shown marked diversi-
ty Of policy in the regulations which it has pre-
scrbed for the sale of the great mass Of the public
domain, and those which it has adopted In relation
TO the reserves severed from it, In the they
have uniformly required them to be sold at public
auction, the government being content IN view OF
the benefits accrung from settlement and cultiva-
ton, to receive the minimum price per acre, whilst
in the other case looking to the special value i'm
parted to these by the pro xress OF settle
ments around them, and the public money ex-
pended upon them. have left the Secretary Of War
free to pursue that mode Of sale which, in his
Judgment, was best calculated to realize their true
and fair value. To carry out this manifest intea-
ton OF Congress, various modes OF sale have been
ment to realize, far practicable the value OF
the reservations brought into market. In one in
stance in the year 1910, where the reservation lay
within the corporate limits of the growing and -four
fishing city of Chicago, it surveyed and laid Off
in conformity to the general plan Of that city, the
streets extended public squares reserved, and the
residue divided into lots of twenty-five feet 'front.'
the property valued before sale, bids not amounting
to onefOurth the cash value of the lots required to
be rejected, and the bidding made by sealed propo-
sails addressed tO'the commissioner OF sale. In the
90 H. I'D .In1
into lots, minimum price fixed, below which no
sale WAS to take place, public auction attempted,
but not bid made, and the property Ia still unsod
Fort Ripley was exposed to public auction without
any minimum prescribed, the price reduced by COM
binations to seven cents an acre, but the sale set
aside and declared nullity. Fort Smelling sold
by private contract. These instances of the four
different modes of sale at different periods, and
under variant circumstances adopted by the War De-
partment. Undoubtedly the most unexceptionable
in all its results of these public sales that of the
Fort Dearborn reservation within the corporate limits
of Chicago. The gross sales of the two hundred
and fifty lots were one hundred and SIX thousand
dollars. One lot alone yielded four thousand one
hundred and fifty dollars, and several were bid of at
two thousand dollars This was special case, and
the only instance in our history; and the results Of
sale Of town lots in a city like Chicago scarcely
be regarded as an memorable model in all other
cases Of sales Of public property The sale Of Fort
Smelling, except so far as It may be Objectionable as
private sale, is the most advantageous ever made
by the government, beyond the corporate limits OF
that city.
In the objection which we have expressed to pri-
vate sales Of government property, it must not be
inferred that there anything in the facts or cir
cumstances connected with the sale OF Fort Smelling
to give point to the remark unless, indeed be
that torrent Of unfounded calumny and misrepre-
sentation to which individual disappointment and
partisan feeling gave rise Immediately thereafter,
and which may be regarded as one Of the conse-
system Of open and public bidding by the government.
The motives which prompted the commissioners to
prefer private TO public salewere honest and praise
worthy. The purchaser with whom they made the
contract although without any legal pretension to
be preferred, had such an equitable claim to d.
vest the preference shown him Of every motive Of
pulated to be paid the full and fair value of the
property, and more than could probably have been
realized by any other mode Of sale.
The reasons which induced the action Of the COM
missoners set forth with great ciearness in their
official report and also in their testimony taken be-
fore the committee and they sustained in their
course by many Of the most intelligent and best in
formed witnesses who were examined before the
committee Their reasons were:-
l. The lesson derived from the experience Of the
sale OF public land In that section OF country for the
preceding ten years-not a sale having taken place
that combinations had not been successful in reduc-
ing the price TO the minimum prescribed by law
2. They were satisfied, not merely from tho past
experience OF the government, but by evidence pal
pabe to their own ears, that combinations were
being formed TO reduce this land to the minimum
price.
3. They saw, in the event even Of there being no
combinations that II was otherwise mprscticable to
carry ont the Instructions Of the War Department,
which limited them to the minimum Of 81 so per
acre. For whilst some portions of the land might
readily have commanded price beyond the mini
mum, considerable portion was worth much less,
and great deal not worth fifty cents an acre. They
believed therefore, that they would best advance the
interests OF the government, and comply with the
instructions under which they acted, by selling the
entire parcels ut private sale TO some responsible
purchaser, either Mt the minimum price prescribed
by their instructions, for such greater sum AZ,
upon careful examination OF the property, they
might conclude TO be its fair and full value
The practical sagacity and soundness Of the
pursued by the commissioners, far at least ~ the
pecuniary interest Of the government concerned,
Is indicated and sustained by an overwhelming
mass Of the testimony taken before the committee,
10 which evidence the House IL referred for full de-
tails OF the principle and results Of that system Of
combination for 30 many years practsed In the West
at the sale OF all government lands-a system uni
versay approved in those new countries, and boldly
justified by that specious logic which applies 10 gov
eminent property rule which IL would scorn TO use
In ifs transactions with individuals and which viii
ever make public domain subject Of undisguised
appropriation and plumber. As many whose duty IL
will be 20 decide upon the propriety Of the conduct
Of the commissioners Of sale may not have any ade
quate conception OF the embarrassments Of their DO
siton and OF the difficulties which they had to en-
counter, growing out Of that system of combination
TO reduce the price Of the public lands prevalent
in the new States and Territories. we will present
few extracts from the testimony Of some Of the wit
nesscs, whose Of information will not be ques-
toned, and whose public positions would afford them
motives TO suppress, rather than magnify the evil.
The Hon. George l.. Becker. representative elect
from Minnesota, in reply to questions submitted 10
him before the committee, answered as follows
Question las DO you suppose that IL Fort Smelling had
been offered at public sale there would have been fair
composition for the purchase OF the reservation Answer
think nos should judge that tbe probabilities that
" public sale had taken plaoe the thing would
have occurred which took reference 70 that part
OF the which sold three or four years
&o.
Question ,4le. n IL had been sold In small parcels
would you nos q Spectator. have been DESTROYS d
purchasing q portion OF ~ Answer. You aware
that have system in the West, which s part OF the
unwrtep Law Of the land by which claim associations
formed by parties for the purpose OF protecting
other at these public sales n very that govern
ment land brings more than dollar and quarter
per acre nj public sale