Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-10-09

lands by paying therefor 81 rs per acre, and the
am unit heretofore paid the government upon said
land sha be taken as part payment of said price
Provided, This shall In wise interfere with the
rights or claims of others who may have subse-
quently entered such lands under the homestead
laws.
SEC. 8. That the price of lands now subject to
entry which were raised to So 80 per more than
twenty years prior to the passage of this act by
OF tne grant OF alternate sections for railroad pur
po es, is hereby reduced to Sl.25.
SEC. 4. This act shall not apply to any of the min
eral lands OF the United States; and no person who
snail De prosecuted for or proceeded against sc-
from any of the public lands after the passage of this
act shall be entitled to the benefit thereof
In Mr.. Donnelly's recent speech in this
city he made the following telling review of
the bribe-given labors in behalf Of his thief
friends:
DonneIty's ReuieiU of Timber Thieves.
The only bill that Mr.. Washburn took
any lively interest in during the past session,
was bill in reference to relieving GER
tain men-who were under Indictment for
stealing timber from the government land
from the responsibility of their acts. I have
here the statement of the department of the
interior as to the number of these trespass-
ers, and you will see at glance the magni-
tude of it. In letter dated April 10th, 1880,
Mr.. Williamson, the commissioner of public
lands, writes that there have been stolen
from the government lands 225, 100000 feet
Of timber; 100000 railroad ties; 100000
cords of wood; 100000 trees, etc. One
thousand and seventy four specific cass of
trespsss have been reported to the
Office, and there have been commenced four
hundred and eighty four suits, and there
have been two hundred and seventy-five ar
rests of men for these acts.
Now, my friends, this stealing was done,
not by poor settlers on the public lands, but
oy wealthy mill owners. They stole thou
sands of dollars worth of the public timber,
and the government has spent thousands of
dollars in ferreting them out, and these suits
were commenced against them. Now, what is
their course ? A poor man steals loaf of
bread and is sent to Jail. What did these
men do !? Instead of submitting to the pun
ishment which the law awarded for their
gigantic rascalities, they went to work and
elected member of Congress to represent
them. He vent down to Washington and
got bill passed. What is that bill /?
1t is simply this, that if man has
stolen the timber off public lands,
has been detected in 1t and
action brought against him, civil or crimi-
nal, that all he has to do in order to escape
punishment "a to pay $1-25 per acre for the
land!
Now, he may have stolen ten dollars
worth OF pine per acre or twenty dollars
worth, or fifty dollars worth, and all he has
got to do is to keep what he has stolen and
buy the land for dollar and a quarter an
acre. This is the bill. 1t is very much as
if law was made that if any man robbed
another upon the public highway, took from
him his money, whether it was ten dollars
or ten Thousand dollars, that he should es.
cape punishment provided he paid back the
price of the pocket book. daughter and
applause.)
Now let me read you from the debate in
Congress upon this bill, because this thing
should be presented to the notice of the
people. Here ia what Mr.. Conger, of Mich
igan, says one of the leading Republicans
of the House, and an honest man and man
of decided ability-in the debate upon this
bill:
"a great number of suits have been insti-
tuted; many are still pending. Large amounts
of property taken from government lands have
been seized. Large amounts were sold perhaps
to innocent parties; perhaps large amounts are
still in the possession of the government.
Now, what does this bill propose? To con-
done all these trespasses, to pardon all the
couspiracies. 1t offers reward, a great re.
ward, reward of hundreds of thousands of
dollars in the future to men who will trespass
upon government lands; for the passage of this
bill, if it should pass, would show that after
sufficient trespasses have been committed, af-
ter the crimes have swollen to an enormous
extent, The parties concerned have only to
come to Congress and virtually be paid for
their crimes.''
This is Republican Judgment upon the
bill:
IF the bill should pass without the amend
ment there will be an inquiry why the COM
mittee recommended such bill. There will
be inquiry through the country why property
to the amount of millions of dollars, of which
we are the guardians, is plundered and given
away to wrong-doers. Let gentlemen prepare
to meet that inquiry. In committee I have
called attention to this subject; now call the
attention of the members of the House to 1t.
charge that this is an enormous wrong to the
government and to the property of the govern
ment which we are bound to protect and pre-
serve"
That Is MIR. Conger's judgement on the
bill. Now, MIR. Hazleton of Wisconsin,
another Republican, says:
"Mr. Speaker, should this bill become a law
it would grant not only immurity for all past
offense, but afford security for the future for
all like criminal tresrasses upon the public
domain. 1t provides any man may steal all
he has mind to. and il you catch him then he
may enter the land and escape Justice, but if
you do not catch him he shall receive all the
benefit of his trespass upon the public lands
and 90 scot-free. The enormous amount of
timber stolen continually from the public
lands, the great extent of these trespasses
which are taking place, is not realized by this
House, aud cannot be, except from exsmina-
tion of the reports of the officers of the govern
ment to the proper departments and kno WI
edge of the facts presented in the communica-
tioos of the commissioner of the general land
Office
And SO the debate went on.
Now here is the testimony of Gen. Bragg,
of Wisconsin, very able man, and one
who is familiar with this whole subject:
ST say. MIR. Chairman, if we are to pass this
bill the title ought to be amended SO as to read
An act to license thieves on the public do
main The facts as stated by the gentleman
from Michigan were aptly stated and well put.
If we are to pass acts to relieve men Just as
soon as they are caught the provision in this
DILL that it shall not apply to future trespasses
goes for naught, because it people go on tres.
passing after the passage of this act until they
shall be arrested and brought to Justice, and
then find there is no other way out, they will
come to Congress and say: You ought to pass
laws and condone our trespasses, because q
year ago you passed laws to condone all tres
passes which had taken place prior to that
time"
Then he goes on to say:
when we spend hundreds OF dollars. ssearch-
ing out these trespassers, finding where the
timber has been taken from, by what mill it
has been cut and the mill owner is brought
into court to answer by civil or criminal in
dictment. when he says he has made con-
| tract with somebody else, innocen,ly, ss he al
Il ges, and the government is able to prove he
had not foot of land, but hired men simply
for the parpose of stealing logs from the pub
| lie domain, and it is further able TO establish
| conspiracy, then, when the fruits of the inves-
tigation are about to reach results, they come
to Congress. and we have this amount Of SYM