The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-01-13


While the Treasury and whisky rings al
Washington and the Talnmany Ring in New
York have been pretty thoroughly ex
posed, there has been a well organized ring
Of land jobbers in and around the General
Land Office, who have been quietly plum,
dering the people Of millions upon millions
Of dollars.
Occasionally solitary Iob has been ex-
posed, but the Ring its} and its general
operations have not uta now seen the
light Of day.
A SAMPLE JOB.
In the nineteenth section of the act of
July 2, 1864 Congress granted to the Bur
lington and Missouri River Railroad Com
pany for the extension Of its road from the
Missouri tn Fort kea7ney a distance Of
30 miles-ten alternate sections per mile
On each side If the road and along the line
thereof, not sold, reserved or disposed Of,
and to which neither homestead nor pre-
enption claims had attached at the time
the line Of the road was fixed This grant
is expressed in words similar to those used
in many other railroad grants, but omits all
provision authorizing the company to- in
demnify themselves for the loss Of such
odd-numbered sections, within the granted
limits, az may he found to have been other
wise disposed Of; and the designation Of
lateral limits, or the limits to which they
are restricted in the selection uf their lands
is. though plain enough to any honest
mind, not quite as strongly expressed as in
most other grants. In the following year,
after the company had fixed the map of
their route, they claimed that under this
law they were not limited to any particu-
lar distance from the line If the road in
selecting the ten odd-numbe7ed sections per
mile on each side thereof, but that they
might select them at any distance from the
ruad that it WAS necessary tn 90 In order
not to conflict with the claims If settlers,
and to observe the other exceptions Of tina
law. This claim Of the company was al
lowed by Secretary Harlan in 1896, and he
gave them permission to select their lands
accordingly. At the time Mr.. Browning
succeede Mr. Harlan as Secretary Of the
Interior the Railroad Company had, under
this construction and authority, listed about
three million acres of land in Eastern Kan
sas and Nebraska and when, shortly after
wards, the Commissioner If the General
Land Office asked Secretary Browning for
instructions as to how far out the even
numbered sections must he increased to the
double minimum. or 81. 30 per acre, the
answer Of Mr. Browning was that his pre-
decessOr had misconstrued the grant; that
IL si,ly .-lA-.A~1 a. e. S.-s- .slo-
from each side Of the line Of the road, and
that i'll the absence uf az indemnifying
clause in the grant the company was en-
titled only to such odd-numbered sections
not otherwise disposed of and not exceed
ing ten per mile ON either side. a. might
be found within that distance and that
the double minimum rate to the even sec,
tiuns would not accordingly extend beyond
such limits. This latter and Just cunstruc-
tion gave the company only about half the
quantity If land that they would have oh
tanned under the former, OF something over
a million and a half of acres, but vet more
than sufficient to accomplish the Purpose oi
the act, as will hereafter appear
THE COMPANY SUBxIrs.
II is point of much significance that
the company were So well satisfied of the
correctness Of Mr.. Browning's decisions
that, after exhausting all the arguments
they could master to convince him that his
decision was erroneous, they quietly sub
mitted to it, knowing that it would be fu.
tile to contest the case i'll the judicial tri-
bunal; and further, well appreciating the
fact that if the question were appealed t.
the courts-the only honest course, and the
one they would have pursued had they he.
lieved their claim to he founded in Justice
u .l...l Al 4 L.
would be forever barred from further re.
course to the department i'll this cause un.
der their grant.
UNFOUNDED ASSURANCE,
Some men, indeed we may say most men,
who enter upon a dishonest course, when
they discover that the serious difficulties 81
justice and law are held but prominently in
their path, are disposed to yield-such op.
position arousing even the small remnant
Of latent honor remaining to the hardened
criminal. But not so with these schemins
and unscrupulous robbers Of the public do
main. Fooled in one impudent attempt to
hoodwink the department by specious YET
false pleading, and by heaven knows how
much corruption to persuade the depart.
ment to he hoodwinked, and so warp and
twist the forms of law out of their lust
proportion as to favor their outrageous
project, they have ever since been worm.
eating at the already well perforated hull,
and have recently and openly revived theil
old claim, assured in advance Of the issue
after waiting and working thus long and
patiently for more favorable aspect Of the
government
STARTLING TO RELATE,
in view Of opposed Law and reason, they
have succeeded Al procuring a decision
from the present Secretary reversing that
ot Mr.. Browning and sustaining that Of
Mr.. Harlan, authorizing the company to
select their lands on each side Of the road.
without regard to distance, extending
northward if necessary to the Canada boun-
Diary and southwark to the State Of Texas.
We dare not tell our suspicious. though
we do not wish to have it understood that
they are directed against the Secretary OF
the Commlssloner.Of, the General Land Of
hce; but we remember hearing it whispered
how in the operations Of another ring its
agents and emissaries were, through its in
fiuence solely, appointed to official posi-
tiOns III the department against which these
operations were direeted, for no other pur-
pose than to spy our and forward the in
terests Of their villanous employers in the
Ring, and the chiei officers Of which de-
partment, having il the outset arraved
themselves on the side of Law against the
encrOachment of the Ring, suddenly and
by some apparently subtle influence were
won over to its nefaious purposes.
THE LAW OF THE CASE.
The language of the grant to this CON-