New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-12-03
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
WORK OF THE SPECIAL AGENT SYSTEM.
VARIOUS KINDS OF FRAUDS DErEcTED-scBEMEs
TO POSSESS GOVERNMENT LANDS
lBY TELEGRAPH To THE TRDUNE1

TO POSSESS GOVERNMENT LANDS.
lBY TELEGRAPH To THE TRmUSE.l
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2.-"HOw is the system
OF special agents workngi" asked TRIBUNE correspond
ent OF Commissioner Mcfarland Of the General Land
Office.
satisfactorily. The special agents have been in the
field about six months and reports from Of them
received every day. I have examined and acted upon
about 800 illegal and fraudulent entries reported by
them These entries covered about 12s 600 acres OF
which the Government would have been deprived except
for the service"
'Haye any of the persons who held such entries a-
pcalcd from the finding Of the special agentsi"
ayes; In eishty cases only out OF the 500 examined
under this system have objections been offered to the
proposed cancellation If the entries This fact Is signih
cant Of the correctness Of the agents reports and Of tho
wholly lndefensibo character of the mpeached entries.
The reports in ali based upon personal
atOn by the agent Of each tract of land and the entry
held for cancellation except positive evidence It
Is further found that In few, II any, OF tho
eighty cases have the objections come from the
persons in whose the entries were made.
They usually appear to be from persons
who furnished the money for the entries bought them
aftcrward."
THE LANDS THAT ARE COVETED.
Z" What kinds of lands did these fraudulent entries
covert"
Pine timber lands in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin
and Missouri made Ostensbly for settlement under the
10 obtain the valuable timber for the nominal price at
which agricultural lands are sold to settlers The prin
cpa operators persons largely engaged in the tim.
ber business, the settler" being convenient myth.
Another class Of timber lands in California Oregon
Nevada and Washington Territory The reports Of special
agents particularly in California and Washington Terri
tory disclose a combination Of large capitalists English
well American to obtain title to immense tracts OF
timber land by hiring men, women and children swear
to false aHlayits that they make the entries required
Ivy law for their and benefit and not for specula
tiou. The prices regularly paid for set of false entry
papers range according to the reports from $50 to $780,
Tie Government gets 81 90 an acre. the land per-
haps being worth ten times its cost to the speculaors
Agricultural lands IN Dakota have also received marked
attention.
SOME or TIE PERSONS CONCERNED.
"Thc persons concerned directly Indirectly, embrace
English peers, Eastern capitalists, adventurous
spirits who em,grate to the booming Territory
to grow mp with the country, and cnterprsing
land agents and attorneys. Preempuon. commTei
homestead and timber culture entries the fayorte
instrmentalities If faud in this region. No Is
township OF land surveyed than IS plastercd with
entries and filings, or less bogus, but generally
more aud the actual settler who goes stay the farmer
who Is 10 produce the subsistence of nation buy
on pretended claims at iyn rates before be OH
tain the privilege OF making honest entry Of the land.
taecos to the fraudulent control OF public lands THO
principal sphere Of operations under these laws IS az
The failure OF the timber culture law to produce tho
results contemplated, and its success ia promoting
fraudulent land entries parallcled by the desert
land act. frauds under which
mitted mainly I'm the Pacific states and Territories.
But the frauds do not stop there. The Govern
ment price coal lands is from $40 to $50 acre.
Fraudulent entries of coal lands made under the pre-
empoU and other agricultural laws The reports OF tho
special agents heavy transactions OF this sort
Colorado and other States In which coal abounds, tho
fraudulent entries proving TO be the property OF mining
companies
FRAUD IN TIE GRAZING COUNTRY.
But by far the most Extensive frauds found in tho
grazing country, where the cattle kings have fenced in
the country by whole counties. and the investigations
h,s by agents show that the land within these enc0s-
ures being covered by bogus entries made by employees
the stOck-ncn the former supplying the needed ada-
Wits OF settlement ard the latter paying the land Office fees
and pocketing the title Many entries of this class have
already been cancelled or held for cancellation.
"Thc practice IN such old Territories a. New-Mexico
and Arizona IL found to be that the cowboys arc
BROUGHT up in squads 10 the district land Office 10
swear in mclnuOus Spanish names TO aiitayitS
that they have resided the land for ten, twelve
twenty years when in fact they may not have been in tho
the same and each serves the regulation witness for
the other Tue cost OF 1G0 acres to the stock company
by this process about tThe 10 cents
In the newer Territories, here long inhabtancy Is not
easily proven, the operation l. like that OF Democrats
repeating in New-YOTk city elections. gang OF pre-
by thcy employers by merely adopting a sufficient NUM-
Der OF names and repeating the process Of swearing as
principals and witnesses alternately"
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