Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-03-16
THE MINNEAPOLIs GANG.
H0,O tho Timber Thieves Hope to Esct
Punishment by Liquidation.

funSsIsnsent BY Liquidation.
Washington National Republican.
A bill has been introduced by Demo-
cratic member, and is now pending in the
Democratic House of Representatives, which
is the joint inspiration of timber thieves
and their attorneys. The bill is said to
have the support of a majority of the mem
bers of that body; but whether this is true
or not, it certainly has for its sponsors and
advocates some very prominent Democratic
leaders. For its mere introduction Mr..
Herbert, of Alabama, is responsible, but how
it received the approval of the committee on
public lands is yet to be explained. It is not
our purpose to charge Mr.. Herbert with any
attempt at wrong doing; he was doubtless
used as an instrument by those whe are to
share the plumber when the theft is accomp
lished. and he was doubtless selected for the
reason that numerous prosecutions have been
set on foot in his State for insignificant
depredations, when the timber was
actually needed and used for the per-
sonal wants of the people constituents;
but the bill for which he is responsible was
intended for different purpose and differ
emit class of offenders, and is 80 drafted as
to protect the great imber-thieves of the
Northwest, where millions of dollars worth
of government timber have been stolen and
sold to enrich ring of adventures in Min
nesota and others, against whom suits are
now pending, to compel them to disgorge.
The Herbert bill, ostensibly intended to pro-
1ect settlers who have trespassed where ne
cessity almost compelled them, is artfully
framed, with the design of protecting the
Spectators who have been made rich by q
systematic wholesale robbery of the public
lands, and, as part of the scheme, proposes
to reduce the best lands from $3.50 per acre
to $1.25, and gives clean bill of health to
the ring and their co-conspirators. If the
secretary of the interior can spare a few
moments from the study of civil-service
rules, he would do we'll to give his attention
to this branch of his business.
The following is the bill in question:
A bill relating to the public lands Of the
United States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled, that when
any lands of the United States shall have
been entered, and the government price paid
therefor in full, no suit or proceeding, civil
or criminal, by or in the name of the United
States, shall thereafter be had or further
maintained fol- any trespasses upon, or for
or on account of any material taken from
said lands, or on account of any alleged con-
spiracy in relation thereto, prior to the ap-
proval of this act:
Provided, The defendants in such suits OF
proceedings begun before such full payment
shall exhibit to the proper court or officer the
evidence of such entry and payment, and
shall pay all costs accrued up to the time OF
such payment.
Sec. 2. That persons who have heretofore
under any of the homestead laws entered
lands properly subject to such entry, or per.
sons to whom the rights of those having sc
entered for homesteads, may have been at
tempted to be transferred by bona fide in
strument in writing, may entitle themselves
to said lands by paying therefor $l.25 pei
| acre, and the amount heretofore paid the
government upon said lands shall be taken
as part payment of said price:
Provided, This shall in no wise interfere
with the rights or claims of others who may
have subsequently entered such lands under
the homestead laws.
Sec. 8. That the price of lands now sub
| ject to entry which were raised to $3.50 pei
acre more than twenty years prior to thu
passage of this act by reason of the grant o.
alternate sections for railroad purposes il
hereby reduced to $1.25.
Sec. 4. This act shall not apply to any o.
| the mineral lands of the United States; ani
no person who shall be prosecuted for o.
proceeded against on account of any tres
passes committed or material taken from an.
of the public lands after the passage of thi
act shall be entitled to the benefit thereof.