Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-04-01
The MUssEL SLOUGH SETTLERS.

who sought to make capital for themselves
by a controversy with the railroad that
while protesting against the prices put
upon the land by the railroad, the Leaguors
have refused to purchase at any price
whatever, and have in fact shown an I'M
mistakable determination to retain posses
sion of land to which they had no title, with
out paying for it at all. 1t is intimated
that what the League seeks is not only
condemnation of the Court which SEN
fenced the settlers, but condemnation OF
everybody who dares to demur to the
lawless practices of the League. The
settlers who have made this state
ment further say that they " have
d" good reason to believe, and do be-
''lieve, that said League has been
'school in which the doctrine of revolu-
q" ton has been taught that the Govern
ment was corrupt, and not worth their
allegiance that the lands occupied by
them, though patented to the railroad
company, were of right theirs" They
state that the doctrine of revolution has
"been advocated on the str cts here for the
"last three years or more" An attempt
has been made by three of the Leaguers to
reply to this statement, which bears the
signatures of nineteen settlers but most
of the facts alleged happen to be too notori-
Gus to be explained away. 1t is very Ger.
tain that the attitude of the League has
been that of men who were determined to
hold on to the lands, right or wrong, and
who were prepared to resist even the au-
thority of the United States in carrying
out their programme. The facts that they
armed themselves, and that they used their
arms, and that they made threats, and that
they resisted the processes of the Courts,
are undeniable and it is equally certain
that the views made public by them re-
garding their status justified the belief that
they did not pay any respect to priority of
title, but meant to keep the lands in de-
fance of all adverse claimants.
The settlers who have signed the state
ment condemning the action and pretenses
of the League of course know what they
are doing. Men do not put their names to
such documents blindly, as rule. 1t
happens, also, that their representations
are confirmed by the letter of Mr.. Gid
dings, which We also published yesterday.
This gentleman asserts that the Leaguers
have been the tools and victims of design
ing men, who have used them for selfish
purposes. He believes the majority of the
members to be honest. but says that they
have been hoodwinked by their leaders,
who have dragged them through defeat
after defeat until, having been convicted
in the court of last resort, nothing seemed
left to them but resort to force Mr..
Giddiugs also expresses the opinion that
the Leaguers have not been badly treated
sin this land matter. Many of them have
held the land by simply claiming it +;
"have had the use of it for six years free,
and nearly everyclaim could have been
" sold for from 500 to 81 600, always largely
in excess of their improvements. If this
sis grinding the poor, many poor fellow
would ike to be thus ground. In short
it is made very plain by these statements
that, as Mr.. Giddings puts it, there is
"more than one side to this Mussel Slough
/" story"
1t has been clear from the first that
there was Communistic element at work
in the case. There was in the initial cir
cumstances nothing at all out of the com
mon course. These men had occupied
land which they all knew perfectly well to
be railroad land, and when the time came to
pay for their holdings they refused to pay.
The excuses which they set up were shown
to be invalid by their steady and monoto-
nous failure to impress any responsible ju-
dicial tribunal with the justice of their
case. They succeeded in creating Ger.
tain amount of popular sympathy be-
cause in dealing with the public they were
under no necessity of combining themselves
to facts, They could embellish their pop
ular briefs with as much fiction as they
pleased, and there was no one to call them
to account but when it came to state
ment and demonstration of actual facts
they were decided against every time.
No doubt, also, the men who were lead
ing them made abundant use of whatever
latent hostility to railroads they en-
countered. They represented the League
as an organization of virtuous settlers
struggling against oppression. 1t was
strange,that none OF the Courts could be
got to take this view of it, and yet it has
not been alleged that the Courts are corrupt
or inefficient The truth is that the
League had one story for the public, and u
very different one for the Courts Their
public story was a tissue of imaginative
statements about corporation tyranny"
and such like expressions their Court
story was an exhibit which left them no
standing ground. They were beaten for
the best Of all possible reasons, because,
namely, they did not have the right on
their side. They did not own the land
they laid claim to, and they had no valid
title to it. That was the fact, but they
seem to have thought that they were in an
analogous position to the non-rent-paying
tenants of Ireland, and that if only they held
out long enough they would obtain the fee
simple of the land. A very great deal of
fustian and untruth has been written
about this Mussel Slough case, but the
statements to which reference has been
made in this article prove conclusively that
those best acquainted with the facts do
not approve the cause of the Leaguers, and
do not believe that they have been op-
pressed or injured in any way. As to their
troubles, they brought them upon their
own hands, and they cannot blame any
one but their bad advisers