Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-01-04
THE DESERT LAsp Acr AGAIN.


The San Francisco Chrcaicle has fully
earned the reputation Of being the most un-
truthful newspaper on the Pacific coast.
No journal indeed can follow the career OF a
professional black-maller without abandon
ing allegiance to the truth, and as this has
beenthe main business of the Chronicle, ithas
at no time been other than unreliable. At
present it is the tool of the enemies OF Mr..
Sargent, who, being themselves men OF sin
lister purposes, are filed with alarm at the
prospect that soincorruptib.e and energetic
a man is to be Secretary at the Interior.
And SO they have procured the services OF
the Chronicle to throw mud at him, and
the Desert Land Act has been selected as
the principal point Of attack. What is
most significant about these assaults is that
they come largely from men who have
themselves been engaged in various dis
honest land schemes men who have either
stolen land themselves, or who have tried
hard to steal land. 1t is of such materials
that the fight against Sargent is COM
posed, and no more eongenial organ
than the Chronicle could have been
selected for the purpose. The last lying
accusation brought against Sargent IS
however, a very wide shot, even for
clumsy marksmen. 1t is alleged that Hag-
gin and Carr secured SO, 600 acres in Kern
county under the Desert Land Act, and it
is attempted to show that Sargent ought to
be condemned for this, because it is de-
clared the land was not arid but fertile.
Now IN the first place Mr.. Sargent could
not have been held accountable for this or
any other deed done under the Act, if, as
is claimed, it was violation of the pro-
visions of the Act. 1t is acknowledged
that as Mr.. Sargent framed the Act no
man was entitled to take up any other Kind
than desert land under its provisions. Its
a new doctrine that the w-maker is to be
held accountable for breaches of the law.
It is doctrine at once so impudent and
imbecile that it could only have been put
forth by bad men feeling themselves in des-
perate danger. Under any circumstances,
therefore, Mr.. Sargent can have nothing to
do with the administration of the law. 1t
is the executive officers, and the actual
Iaw.breakers, who are alone to be blamed
or punished. But it happens also that Mr.
Sargent's enemies have Numbered terribly
in their selection of an instance, for what
they say about the Haggin and Carr tract
in Kern county is mass of falsehoods
The land taken up there by Haggin and
Carr was genuine desert land. 1t was not
and never had been fertile 1t did not
produce grass. It did not produce any
thing. 1t was literally and completely
worthless, and worthless it would have
remained to this day, had not Haggin and
Carr faithfully carried out the conditions
of the Desert Land Act, and constructed
system of irrigation works at an outlay of
nearly half a million dollars. In fact it
would be difficult to find a more perfect
illustration of the usefulness OF the Desert
Land Act than this very case supplies.
Here was a body of land which never
could have sustained jack rabbit
without irrigation, and which must have
lain idle and useless for centuries under
ordinary conditions, because no man could
afford to irrigate small quantity of it.
But the Desert Land Act enabled it to be
dealt with on a considerable scale, and the
result was that capital was freely expended
upon it, and to-day it forms one of the most
fourishing and productive areas in Califor-
MIA, and has set an example which will
assuredly bring scores of millions of dollars
into similar enterprises during the next ten
years. Mr.. Sargent's enemies will have to
take a new departure, for they cannot get
him indicted on this showing. The real
truth is that he knows too much about
land legislation for the land thieves, and it
is they who are most active in the warfare
against him at present. President Arthur,
however, is doubtless kept advised of the
true inwardness of these shameful and out
rageous calumnies, and will know how to
treat them.