Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-11-04
AhES TO THE FORE.
Echoes Of the Battle in the FOv.rth
District.
WASHBURN PROVEN A LIAR
The Gigantic Plot to Steal Pine Lands
Worth $4O,OOO.0O0.
EXTRACT FROM ORIGINAL BILL.

DR.. A. A. Ames, Democr:l tic candidate
for congress of the Fourth district in q
speech at Music hall in Saltwater last
evening gave Mr.. Wsshbu ri, his opponent,
a blow below the belt VIII ich he will not be;
apt to recover from ur til after electaen.
When Dr Ames res5rrefi to Mr.. Washbsrm's
dill whereby it was co nterhplated to place
the ~aluable pine lands of the north within!
stealing distance of the pine land thieves
hessaid:
Ever since I gas nominated as the Dem
orcatic candidate for congress froM this
district I haNes&one my utmost to secure a;
copy of Mr. Washburn's bill to removel
certain bands of Indians upon the White
earth reservation. When have asked Mr.:
Washburn's friends whersI could get q
copy of it, they have told me he had tho
only coPy.@f it there was I'm the state: that.
he gave atrue version Of its provisions in
little speech he made recently in the city!
of Minneapolis. tried Washington, but
was unsuccessful. In the mail received by
me since arriving in your city to-day, L
found e. copy of the Grand Forks Herald,
(Dakote} of March 3, 1882, which contains
COPY of the bill. have Pc
rused this document carefully, and have no
hesitancy in pronouneing it as bare-faced
attempt to organize forty -million+dOllar
steal. When I first took the stump in this
campaign from the general information
had of the bill characterized it in mild
language as a scheme by which -scheming
Land grabbers might get in their work. I
now say after reading the original bill
that it was plot to steal $40. 100000 worth
of pine lands, which ought to conslgn its
originator to a secluded home in his
$1a5, 900 house for the balance of his life,
there to enjoy miserable existence upon
the quarter of a million dollars obtained
urder false pretences from the city of
Minneapolis. Mr.. Washburl denied the
charge 1 made that the bill was to allow
the pine lands in the Red lake reservation
to be sold to the highest bidder in
lots to suit the purchaser. He said this
in speech and it was reiterated in his
subsidized press throughout the district
with the evident intent of creating the
impression that Lied. Here is the clause
as it appears in the original bill as intro
duced by Mr.. Washburn. If it has been
amended since it was not his fault This
is as he intended it should be at first:
Sec. 3. That after the said lands en-
braced in any of said reservations have
been appraised as herein provided, the
secretary of the interior shall be, and here
by is, authorized to offer the same at pub
lie sale, through the United States land
Office for the district where the land is sit
uated, to the highest bidder, for cash only,
for not less than the appraised
value of the same, which shall in
no case be less than S1,25 per acre,
in tracts not exceeding 160 acres
to any one person where the lands are
chiefly valuable for agricultural purposes;
and where the lands are chiefly valuable
for their pine or other valuable timber,
the character of the land in all cases to be
determined by the report of the appraisers.
the same shall be sold for cash to the
highest bidder, as herein provided, in
tracts of not more than 16O acres: Pro
vIDED, That NO LIMIT SHALL BE FIXED AS TO
THE AMOUNT OF THIS CHARACTER OF
LAND TO BE PURCHASED BY ANY ONE INDIyID-
UAL."
Now, this is exactly what I charged, and
Mr.. Washburn denied it enphatically
throw the lie back into the teeth of Mr..
Washburn and his subsidized press. Mr..
Washburn may intend to amend his bill;
give the ''thieving clause" as he intended
it should go through when he introduced
it. An earnest protest to the bill from the
chamber of commerce of Grand Forks,
Dakota, dated March 4, 1882, against the
bill. stayed it from passage, and as the game
is large do not wonder at Mr.. Washburn's
anxiety to be returned to congress that he
may try and get this gigantic steal consum-
ated that he may realize pin-money suf-
ficient to meet current and campaign OK
penses.
The lands comprised within the terms of
the bill are those of the Red lake, Leech
lake, Cass lake, Mile Laos, Fond du Lac,
Grand Portage, Bots Fort, Lake Winneba-
goshish and White Oak in Minnesota; also
lands occupied by the Chippewa Indians
in Otter Tail and Todd counties of this
state, also the lands occupied by the Turtle
Mountain bands of Pembina Chippewas in
Dakota territory.
The objections urged by the Grand
Forks chamber of commerce were:
First-It puts it within the power
of rings" or combinations of capitalists
and spectators, to purchase from
the government vast areas of pine TIM
Der lands at one-tenth of their market
value.
Second-It virtually abrogatss the
homestead and presumption acts over
nearly one-half of northern Dakota. in
GLIDING the finest portions of the territory,
and throws the land open to nonresident
spectators and bonanza farmers"
The protest then goes on to give the
following statement of facts.
The pine land included within
the limits of these reservations
in Minnesota is estimated by
experts at four billions 1900, OOO.OOO) of
feet, board measure worth on an average
$40 per 1000 feet as it stands on the land