Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-11-26
The Land Grants.
The October number Of mrs L"t


The writer aflirms that, PERHAPS
nothing in our history demonstrates
N ore clearly the power Of great cor
porations to control the Government
in their own interests than the adj
ministration of the various land
grants made by Congress to aid III
the construction Of railroads" He
then proceeds to show how for many
years during successive adlnlnlstra-
tons and especially those of the last
twelve vea.s, "under the forms of
law, but contrary to the intent OF the
statutes making the grants, vast
quantities of the public domain
have been handed over to wealthy
corporations. Not only without au
thority of law, but contrary to the
repeated decisions Of the Supreme
Court, has the Interior Department
given away the rights and property
of the people. He brings home to
the present Secretary of the Interior,
and his three predecessors, particu-
larly Delano, that which must i'll all
reason be construed as gross ignor-
ance and incompetency, or wlllful
sacrifice of a paramount public inter-
est.
The land grant to railroads gives
them every alternate section for
certain distance OH each side of their
line, and provides that in case it shall
appear that the United States have,
when the line OF route of said road
and its branches is definitely fixed,
sold any part of any section granted,
or the right of presumption has at
tached to the same, then it shall be
lawful to select, within q certain
limit of the line of the road, SO much
land, in alternate sections, as shall
be equal in amount to such lands as
the United States has sold, or to
which the right of presumption has
attached. Instead of Withdrawing
these lands when the grants took
effect, people were allowed to go upon
and improve them, and when the
line of the road was located the
grantee realized less than was orig
inally granted, and thus have been
created difficulties between the set
tier and the railroad. The Depart
ment then rules, Under the clause for
indemnify" that such other lands
may be substituted as the United
States have not sold OF to which no
adverse right attaches, and the rail-
roads are Unidentified not only for
the lands sold or disposed of before
but after the grant attached. In
this way, millions of acres of the
public domain have bepn patented
without warrant of law and contrary
to the opinions of the Supreme
Court.
In his report for 1876, the Honor
able Commissioner states that suits
were instituted to vacate the patents
issued to the railroad companies,
and that lists of such patents were
in course Of preparation. In his re-
port for 1877, he states that little
progress had been made in the pre-
paration Of such lists, and that de-
mand had been made upon the Cali
fornia and Oregon Railroad Compa-
ny for surrender of the patents
covering such lands, but that no re-
ply had been received. These grants
were likewise referred to in the re-
ports of 1878 and 1879, with the
same result: still preparing. still
waiting. The Supreme Court has
decided that all these patents to
which the Commissioner refers are
void. "The Hon. Commissioner is
a lawyer" says the article under
consideration, "and knows that
void patent conveys no title; that it
has no legal effect whatever, and
that the court cannot, properly
speaking, vacate such patent from
the fact that there is nothing to va
cate." The Department will go on,
it will 60 into the courts, get up
test case, which will be decided after
the companies have received their
pay for the lands, and the innocent