The Daily state register. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1870-1872, 1871-06-09
THE 07ERsHAD0Y1NG QUESTION:

public lands granted away by Con
gress to the corporations amounts t.
two hundred million acres-an are;
just about equal to the original thir
teen States of the Union. The enor
nous extent of these grants can only
be graSped and realized by the minG
except through the comparison. Con.
gress has abdicated its sovereignty
over a territory large enough for an
those great empires which have car
ried terror among nations.
Mr.. Julien declares THAT this nefa-
rious policy seems now only fairly
launched" The Senate at its last ses-
sion passed twenty land grant bills,
calling for the enormous aggregate OF
over one hundred and sixteen million
acres, and at the time Mr.. Julien adj
dressed the House on the subject there
were pendingthirty-seven bills calling
for the further quantity of one hun
dred and nineteen millions-sOme of
which, as the Southern Pacific Rail
road subsidy, afterwards passed. As
the public domain is only one thou
sand millions exclusive of Alaska
how long will there be any lands for
the occupation of the settler? especi-
ally as these grants lap over the
choicest tracts, leaving the worthless
lands to the future?
And this has been done bv a Con-
gress which has loudly proclaimed its
unceasing friendship for the settler
for the right of every man to Il home
stead on the public lands,
The fatal consequences of this policy
is set forth by Mr.. Julien in the fol-
lowing extract from his speech:
Every gentleman from the States of
the Northwest knows how those States
have been scourged by this policy,
while in the land States Of the South,
outside OF the towns and cities, not one
in ten is a landowner. 1t has
wrought upon the country evils more
and enduring than those of
war. pestilence, or famine; and yet,
through all the long years of its mad
ascendencv. Congress-, by a single en-
actment, like the bill now pending in
this House, has had the power to end
it forever. An act declaring that nc
more of the public domain shall be
sold except as provided in the pre-
o-,,.,o, .,l I,a,,r.1o1 IO,L- ,,,. Ill
that was needed to stay the ravages of
this great national curse, and is all
that is now wanted to avert it, recur-
renee in new and still more frightful
forms in the future. The w~orkingmen
and pioneer settlers of the country
have repeatedly petitiOned Congress
to enact such law; but their PRAYER
has been denied in every instance.
while their rights have been trampled
down in the interest Of monOpoli>tS
whose wishes have been promptly
coined into law. The homestead act
fails to meet the ease. The right OF
the settler to land free Of cost is of tar
less consequence than the reservation
Of the public domain for settlers only.
unObStructed in their right ofselection.
The homestead law is only a step in
the r,ght direction; for while it offers
homes to the poor. it does this subject
~ =? itSiHi -
~ Iiol'i" o
n;rmao. I,r,Eo. inta ~ r.;iinr
| anI o. - Ley. -, NJ I,m
There is something more however.
tho inai.tio, Of wr,pr on thu
I
iN\oANe' III I"i' "I1"ie>a'e
laundering of the public domain. 1T
.aacbas down 10 tho very he'd rock of
,.. 80
" It" '"' %
corporations may absolutely
millions of acres, they may own
he whole of a State, or A continent.