The weekly Arizona miner., 1872-11-09

Scr1p, the very smallest poItioH oi it was ever entered by the grantees. Under the various grants of the fourth class the largest tracts have passed into the hands of capital ists, and placed beyond the reach of the small farmer and immigrant. The swamp lands alone that have been claimed by States will aggregate seventy millions of acres, and this amount will be greatly exceeded unless Congress defines more clearly what swamp lands are than is done under the existing statutes. In some cases, land lying in the mountain valleys of the Pacific States, that can only be cultivated by irrigation, have been conveyed to the States as swamp lands, which is clear violation of. the intent of the law. California has been the richest harvest field for swamp land claims, and millions of acres of the most desirable land in the State have passed into the hands of spectators, under the pretext that they were swamps. In many cases portions of these lands were held by settlers under the pre-emption or homestead laws, and some of them had been actually patented by the Government to the settler.
 The grant of 1862 to States, for the pro- motion of agriculture, amounted to about nine and one-haf millions of acres. About two-thir,ls of this has been given to the States and passed directly into the hands of capitalists, and has either been entered by them, or the scrip is being sold at hand some profit to the operator.
 The grants to States, for internal improve ments. amount to over thirteen and one-half millions of acres. As general thing, the grants will be found not to have been ju- dciously applied. Impracticabe schemes of internal improvements have been started and fba fp6 " hp found to have passed into the control of capi- talists
 The donation of the 16th and Beth sections, for educational purposes, amounting in the aggregate to sixty mine millions of acres, has proved the most useful donation that has been made to the states, and has done much to foster the common school system.- Lying in separate sections, it was not available for speculative purposes, and for that reason it has doubtless escaped the rapacity which seized upon the other grants.
 Under the classes we have enumerated as the Sd and 4th. and excluding the 10th and Seth sections, the Government has given away over l53, 100000 of acres, almost all of which passed into the hands of capitalists, at much less than it's real value, and was en- tered in large tracts, or the scrip was sold at heavy profit.
 The fifth class-that of grants to aid in the construction of railroads-is one which has attracted more attention than all others, and has received the severest denunciatiOns of the public, because the impression seems to prevail that those grants have done more to place the land beyond the reach of the ac- tual settler than any other class of land leg islation. It is true that the area of land granted for railroads is greater than that giv- en for any other single object-amounting, exclusive of mineral and worthless desert land, to S9,000,0O0 of acres. But it is not true that this land has been withdrawn en- tirelv from the reach of the poor man, who wants land for actual occupancy. Nor Is It true that the Government is the looser by an amount eaua to the price of the land so dO- mated. Aside from the compenSating ad- vantages of the railroad, which are certainly very great, the Government doubles the price of the remaining land within the rail road limits thus receiving as much for the remaining one-half as she would have receiv- ed for the whole, previous to the grant.
 Neither is the railroad land beyond the reach of the settler. It is the interest of the railroad company to induce settlement as rapidly as possible, to furnish a carrying trade; and its lands cannot be disposed of if they arc held at price much in excess of the adjacent Government land. But it is not the purpose of this article to define the policy of railroad grants, but simply to show what has become of our public domain.
 The following recapitulation shows the amount of land granted under each of the foregoing classes, excepting the pre-emption, which cannot be excepted from other sales :: c,o. fr oash ,o Actual Settlers ..... go, 29f 900 All other Sales for Cash h.-------- so' @ ooa v go0 Homestead Settlers settlers. --'--'.... 5000 GOO ', noun 's nS S S.r;,, ............ 7l5 652 to States S.. no c.,o Showing an aggregate of donations or grants of 330, ,S62, ,855 acres, or more than double the aggregate of all cash sales by the Government, since its organization.
 An examination of the above figures will show that, in spite of the avowed policy of Congress to preserve the public domain for actual settlers, only about one acre Tn iive has zone directly to the actual settler. Put ting the railroad grants out of the question, and there remain 306, ,25S, l25 acres that have passed into the hands of parties whose only object was to obtain the highest price for them. The bulk of this was given in float ;nc scrip. which could be and has been laid mon the most desirable lands, closing them lhgainst the occupancy of settlers. It has been estimated that spectators Tn the pub lie lands, under the several grants above cited. have realized not less than one thous- and millions of dollars profit, which amount has, of course, been paid by small farmers, who should have been enabled to procure their land from first hands.
 There can be little doubt of the correct ness of the policy of Congress with regard to the disposition of the public lands. | The Homestead law indicates tbat the Government values a quarter section of land occupied and cultivated higher than the same amount in its own possession. The idea of deriving revenue directly from the public lands has been practically abandoned. The Government offers to give away all her land vet in the nine years in which this offer has been standing, she has given away less than sixteen millions of acres.
 Our legislation should be framed so that the policy of Congress may be faithfully car ried out. The history of the past in our land s,rants offers an excellent guide for the