The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1883-03-31
"RAILWAY INFLUENCE IN TRE LAND.
. ..r,.r .,s 81 gOFElCE."g gt1sJ adt orl

Mr.. George W. Julian presents in
The North American Review an ar.
ticle entitled "lsailway, Influence Id
the Land. Ohice,'', which Is worthy oi
attention. Reading this paper, the
truth of an axiom repeated by Mr.,
Henry George appears to have some
weie ht stThe government must own
the railroads, or the railroads will own
the government" 1t was in 1850, fol
thr construction OF the Illinois Central
railway, that the first grants or public
land were made So loose was legis,
Ia.ion, so grasping the demands Of the
projectors OF, the various lines. Mr..
Julian states, that in some instances
the grants were given with emo late,
raj limits" This waste Of public pro-
perty became so extensive that at last
the people were alarmed, and about
eleven years ago halt was called ,
"but it was not until more than 2OO,- :
000, 900 acres OF the peoples patrimony
had been zappropriated-an area as
large as that of the thirteen original
states. Since these rights were given
by the nation, of course there is no use
In disputing these claims, but Mr..
Julian shows by what means the rail-
roads have been upheld In many cases
in litigations with private parties as
to the ownership of lands to which the
railroads had no possible claim. Iu
some special cases It seems evident that
the decisions of the supreme court have
been overridden ky the railroad COM
panies. Mr.. Julian cites how the sim
pie printing of certified lists has been
considered equivalent to patents, and
that In this way companies shave had
awarded to them an illegal excess of
indemnity lands amounting to more
than 100000 acres, or enough to
make 62,500 farms of ,160 acres"
These lands might have been opened
to settlers at government prices, "in-
stead of becoming the spoil of corpor-
ate monopolies and sold at rates i'm
posed by themselves" In such ,litiga-
tion as may, arise. Mr.. Julian insists
that, as fur as private person is con-
cerned, "every presumption is against
him and no mistakes are ever made in
his favor. In the endeavor to cor
rectly. define lands claimed by rail-
roads, awaiting settlement under vari-
Gus acts of congress, Mr.. Julian csti-
mates that there are today not less
than 1oo, 200, 600 acres withdrawn. But
the worst examples of these grants are
the cases where railroads hold lands
where lines have never been built at
all. The Coosa & Cbattanooga railroad
had land grants which expired in
1856. All the public lands along this
proposed line, in odd sections thirty
miles in width, have still been rcserv-
ed since 1858. No portion of a road
called the Pensacola. Il Georgia railroad
has been built; still the land along the
whole length Of tho contemplated road
for twelve miles in width was with.
drawn from the public in 1867, and re.
mains so today. Tho st. Louis 4 Iron
Mountain railroad had a grant made
in 1866, but the road abandoned tho
proposed line for another location, and
still the reservation for twenty miles
on each side of the line, as originally
proposed, is held. Innumerable other
cases, all of the same character, are
presented, and in summing them up
Mr.. Julian writes "These illustra-
tions of the management of railroads
bp the land department are in fact
Illustrations Of the management OF tho
land department by the railroads."
.u-T. THE ENIN mn T1EE 10 H ~