Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-11-17
THE RECESSION OF THE R. R. LANDS.

planning the proposition, then freshly mooted
by the Pacific Railway Companies, of a recess
sion to the General Government of lands
granted to said Companies. The substance
or gist of the proposition is that the Govern
ment receive the said lands from the Compa-
MES in satisfaction, or part satisfaction, of
certain obligations due from these corpora
tons. We cannot now call to mind the num-
Der of acres included in this proposed transfer,
nor the price; but we think the amount
named in the bill is 81 per acre. These
lands and certain annual sum paid into the
Treasury as sinking fund, would, it is
thought, enable the Companies to cancel their
obligations in thirty years or such matter
This important question has lately been
brought for second time to the attention of
Congress and the public. Petitions, embody-
ing the facts and setting forth the advantages
promised by this scheme are now circulating
among our fellow citizens. They will receive,
we doubt not, the signature of every consider
ate person who takes the slight trouble neces-
sary to inform himself with regard to the
proposition therein set forth. The advanta-
ges of the transfer are obvious. At present,
tho public lands in Nevada not owned by the
State, are subject to . divided ownership.
Under our system of surveys and Congress
sional grants of land, the public domain is
checker board. Over and across this board
the would be land purchaser must move with
great caution and more skill, or he will find
himself liable to the fate of a trespasser. In
other words, under system which discovers
the public lands lying in alternate bodies,
every other township the property Of a differ
cnt owner, the domain suffers moro from the
mutilatiOn O. its Typographical proportions
than it can possibly gain in the way of availa
bility to the purchaser by reason of rival own
ership. The owner can neither sell nor the
purchaser buy to the best advantage SO long
as the lands are thus held by the terms of
patchwork map. Either the railway compa-
MES or the General Government should be |
the sole landlord. In a country where lands |
are comparatively worthless without facilities |
for irrigation and where pasturage must bear
a close relationship to springs and mountain
streams, the arbitrary lines known to the civil |
engineer and the land register may prove a
very decided hindrance and obstacle Unfor-
tunately the natural watercourses which trav-
erse the face of the country do not always con-
form themselves to the necessities of town
ship boundaries or the rectangular lines of
of Surveyors General. Our lands are chiefly
valuable to the grazier. His necessities de
mand large bodies or ranges of land. Expe-
rience has shown, only too frequently, that
the divided ownership OF the commons is a
sufficient impeachment to the purchase from
either the Government or the railroad people
to cause the land to be absolutely unavailable
to one or many. We think the sole ownership
of these lands by the Government would be
promotive of immigration, occupation and set
Element. Within the lines Of Nevada there
are about one hundred and ten, thousand
square miles. This is an area greater than all
New England and New York, combined. Our
population is something less than fifty thous- =
md souls, all told, white, black, copper colored
and yellow. This showing presents US the
spectacle of a State with something less than
one half of one inhabitant to the square mile.
It is evident that, if population be desirable,
Dur most pressing need is an influx of settlers
Anything which will induce immigration is
desirable. It is the belief of the MORNING ',
APPEAL that the abandonment Of their right
o their lands in this State by the Central Pa
;fc Railroad Company would exert a benef- 4
ent influence. Also we believe that the
proposition made by them to the General Gov -
if accepted would prove of great ad- /,
antage to the people who are the most inter =
sted, namely, those who live contiguous to -
hose lines of railroad. Furthermore, we
hink it the duty of the Government to re-
ossess itself, if by any reasonable terms it
lay do SO, of as much of its wholesale and i'll nj
dvised squanderings of the public domain as 10
ossible. Certainly it is. in the direction of til
Ii our interests here in Nevada that this re- ha
ession should take place. We have no hest tic
ltion, therefore, in urging the people to sign Sc;
lese petitions, praying for the adoption of tel
lis proposed transfer of the railroad lands.
be
soUAw MURDERED. Silver State of fr
ov ID has the following account of the muir n,o
r of squaw by her liege lord We are in
rmed that squaw was recently killed in
radio oil L.,