Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-05-05
THE DESERT LAND BILL.


the Detective Press over the Desert Land Bill
and the possible advantages likely to arise
Hereunder are of character with much OF
the emotional effervescence noticeable III the
direction in which are to be found the pub
fishers whose proxy was originally held by the
dog in the Manager But the dog was the
more consistent animal for while he would
not permit anybody else to fill his belly with
the fruits of newly born advantage, he quite
as resolutely refrained from helping himself
They do these things differently in the realms
of the D. P. The moiety system has soda
tive effect rarely Intellectual and the inside,
with profits, has many more seductlons than
the outside with the pangs and wrenchlngs OF
an overstimulated but under satisfied appetite.
1t is doubtless true that there are those among
us who are so 'cutely constituted as to be al
ways on the alert to avail ourselves of all
profitable markets and measures wherever
they may be; and so it happens that even the
very best and most benefcent statutes are
oftentimes made to do duty to the enrichment
of those who know how to take advantage of
them The landgrabber is doubtless very
grevious affection in this world of aches and
acres; but he has existed all the way down
from the days of Cain and Moses and Romu-
lus and Remus. Man is an accumulative ami
NAL and he will, if he is given an opportu-
nifty to crafty his greed, monopolize wealth
and power and honors. Even mastitf will
monopohze bone to the discomfort and I'M
allayed hunger of Turnspit; and it is said
that feas have other heas, and so, ad infini
tum But the Desert Land Bill is just now
being belabored by the good and pure philan
thropists who control the Detective Press
aforesaid. Chapman, the land-swallower,
William B. Carr, J. B. Haggin, Mackey &
Fair etc. etc, have, it is averred, taken the
said enactment at its own terms and possessed
themselves of vast tracts of land in the Kern
River Valley and elsewhere. In other words
they have done just what money making men
always have done and always will do-made
themselves the owners of large tracts of land
at price which they believe to be far below
the actual value of the same. The law having
been passed at the late session of Congress,
the enemies of Senator Sargent have seized
upon it as club with which to maui his polit-
ical brains withal Landgrabbing being I'M
popular, the commentators of the aforesaid
press have first denounced the Desert Land
Bill as landgrabbing scheme, and then
pasted it on the back of Mr. Sargent's candi-
dacy and cried "look here" 1t is the old
4
this bill come to pass, and what part of the
world does it most largely effect? The hue
and-cry raised in California has caused the
public statement of the fact that the bill passed
with the assent and cooperation of the entire
Pacific delegation that it passed the Senate |
after being reported favorably in that body by |
Senator Booth of the Public Lands Commit |
tee; and that it met the very hearty approval |
of all parties. There may be some hundreds |
of thousands of acres of lands i'll California |
which can be advantageously gobbled by spec
ulators under this act but there are about |
seventy millions of such acres in this State
and it was to Nevada more than any other |
State that the law was framed to apply. |
senseless detraction and clamor, Mr. William
son, the Commissioner of the General Land |
Office, answering some wild misstatements in
the n. Y World, officially declares that the
law is good one and that it is sufficiently
guarded to prevent the requirement of any
lands except such as are not susceptible of
cultivation save by the introduction of water
He says, no doubt with great truth, that
1.-THE experience of the department has been
that such lands cannot be sold or even given
away as homesteads, and it is therefore con-
sidered wise policy to sell them in sections at
81 % per acre as the only means of inducing
the investment of capital to reclaim them
And so much for the latest mares nest devel-
oped to the eyes of the detective pressgangers
Brave old Ben Wade is not disposed to
rest silent under any misstatements of his
attitude toward public men and things past
and present. Ward Lamon, whose only
claim to public recognition consisted in his