The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-05-02
RAPACIOUS CORPORATIONS.
Unlawfully Holding Six Hundred Mill.
ion Dollars Worth OF Land.
Hon. Joseph r. Cobb interviewed on
the forfeiture OF Railroad
Land Grants.

The question of declaring forfeited $780,
oO0, coo acres of land which were granted to
Railroad Companies about the year 1864 is
destined to become one of the leading ques-
tons with which Congress will have to deal
at its next session. unless the Secretary OF
the Interior, Teller, takes the responsibility
OF robbing the country of 5000 000, 900 by
declaring the titles to this vast territory
which was granted in PRESENT., vested in
Companies which have failed to comply
with their contract. Ia 1864 a great spirit
of railroad enterprise took possession of the
country. The unexplored West awaited
development, which statesmen foresaw
would be greatly facilitated by having its
distances traversed by railroads. Hence a
scheme was adopted by Congress to grant to
corporations every alternate section of land
for distance of twenty miles on either side
OF railroads which, in consideration of the
grant, were to be built by these corporations
within ten years after the date
of this conditional grant, A
few OF these Companies, namely, the
Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, have
complied with the terms of the contract
and thus 20. 000, 600 acres of the 200 000, 900
which, in all, was thus given away has been
legally acquired. The balance, 49,, 900, 900
acres, is held by corporations, which, al
though never having built a mile of the
roads they contracted to build, now come
before the Department of the Interior and
seek to have their titles in present. declared
vested in them absolutely. Hon. Joseph K.
Cobb, the author of bill in Congress to de-
clare these titles forfeited, was called upon
yesterday at the Bates House, and in re-
Spouse to q request of the interviewer, he said:
During the early part of the long session
of Congress presented bill declaring these
land grants forfeited, and / moved the ref
erence of the bill to the Committee on Pub
lie Lands. But the Speaker, for some un-
explainable reason, took issue with me as to
the proper reference of the bill and said that
it ought to go to the Committee on Pacific
Railroads. | knew that if il went to that
COMMITTEES it would die, and l made a
speech defending it from such fate. Then
Mr.. Hammond, of Georgia, moved as an
amendment that the bill be referred to the
judiciary Committee. 1 called for the ayes
and nays on that vote, but it carried by a
vote OF seven. / then offered resolution,
which was adopted, recurring the Secretary
of the Interior to furnish all the informa-
ton available as to the number of miles
granted to each corporation and the date and
term of each grant That required great
amount of work. Other bills similar to
mine bad failed, because that information
had never been collected. II was not until
during the last DAYS of the sessi on that the
Secretary made his report under that reso-
luton. Then the Committee had only
short time in which TO act on the bill after
il had gotten the necessary specific informa-
ton. However, out of the twenty seven
grants named in the bill, they recommended
that seven be declared forfeited Among
those seven were the Texas Pacific. IA 600, 600
acres. The Committee vote was ten for for
feiture and one against, there being only
eleven members present when the vote
was taken. On the Northern Pacific, the
vote was seven for forfeiture and eight
against. Congress adjourned then before it
had time to consider the report of the Com
mitiee, and during the short session last
winter, Congress was too busy to take it up
But intend on the first day of the next
Congress to re-introduce my bill. All the
information necessary for decisive action
is now ready. and we can go to work on the
consideration of the bill without the loss of
time which was necessary during
the last Congress. | find no
fault with Congress in the
matter. But now since the adjournment of
Congress these corporations come in and
claim that by its failure to legislate on the
matter Congress has waived the right to
declare the titles forfeited, even though they
have failed to comply with their contracts
The railroad corporations own ten billion
dollars worth of property. which is equal to
one-tenth of the value of all the property OF
the country. They have plenty of money,
with which they employ the best lawyers
in the country to fight their cause. II they
get absolute possession of this land they
will hold it until it is to their interest to
sell, and all this land will remain undevel-
oped until il becomes valuable"