The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-01-26

| TOTAL OF lJz,UOlj loo. HIS iuCluueS thS lOl-
! lowing:
Union Pacific. 1000 0OO
Kansas Division. 5000, 000
Denver Division.........-......... 1,OO0, DOC
Central Branch. 246,00C
Central Pacific. ...................... 1897, SOC
Western Pacific. ..................... 100000
Oregon Branch. ...................... 3,725, DOC
| Sioux City and Pacific. $4,000
Northern Pacific. $4,000, O0C
| Southern Pacific................. $4,000, 00C
Atlantic and Pacific $4,000, 00C
| Oregon Central. ................. 300, DOC
| Texas and Pacific............... $4,000, 00C
| New Orleans Pacifc............. 904, DOC
| In addition to these grants interest on bonds
has been guaranteed, loans made, Govern
ment liens having the first security on the
road have been made to give way to second
mortgage bonds of the companies and to take
the second place, and claims of the Govern
ment have been held in allegiance. Laws
have been cunningly drawn so as to admit Of
a construction depriving the Government
| from enforcing payments due from the roads
until after the expiration of a number of years
and packed and tainted Supreme Court has
| been prompt to give them the desired inter.
probation.
This scandalous record is the key to the
large wealth accumulated within the last
twenty years by the Republican leaders in
Congress. 1t points ont the foundation oil
the colossal fortunes that have made men
Presidential candidates or aspirants for the
Republican Presidential nominations. 1t is
the secret of leadership, whether in Ohio OF
Maine. From the lobby magnates who have
ruled in these matters, whether IN their rival
ries or their combinations, fortunes have
/ flowed into the pockets of the class-leaderS
I I'll .ctI,o E,orI D1J pa,.fy,
The Republicans stand trembling at the eX-
posure of the vast land grabbing frauds, and
yet they dare not refuse to protect the railroads
and to oppose the forfeiture of a single acre.
Why? Because they have been paid for the
grants Because they have sold the public
lands. Because the Lobby Kings who have
paid them will ask What right have you to
take from us that for which we have compen-
stated you?
The Democratic branch of Congress will
press the bill declaring the Texas Pacific land
grant forfeited. But the Republican party
must be driven from power before the restitu'
ton can be enforced and the people can re-
cover any portion OF the rich acres OF which
they have been robbed.
The Washington, D. c., Post of Wednes-
day, in speaking of the same subject, says:
Monday was red-etter day for the Amer
lean peODlc anu lIC vi SOhSlSoo
but a very cold day for the Land Grant lobby.
To the railroad companies which have laid
long and persistent claim to a hundred million
acres or more of the public domain to which
they had meyer earned the shadow of u title,
it must have had the appearance OF a section
of the day of Judgment.
1t dates the final failure of a gigantic
scheme to plumber the government, and sig
nifes the restoration of millions upon millions
of acres of valuable lands to their rightful
ownership. The people of the United States
are to be congratulated upon its suspicious
auguries.
The Holman resolutions, which were adop-
ted by such an overwhelming and decisive
majority, are to be accepted as not only the
declaration of a fixed policy for the future,
but as triumphant viudication of those Mem
bers of the House, who, like the author of the
resolutions, have for years past waged this
battle for the rights of the people against ire
mendeus odds and under circumstances of the
most discouragiug character.
Thanks be to their courage, perseverance
and conscientious devotion to duty, this great
movement in the direction of reform has taken
definite shape at last, and one of the chief
danger points to the honest administration OF
our public land system is passed.
Not only is it declared to be the policy OF
the House that all grants which have hereto
fore been made to railroad corporations and
of which the conditions have not been full
filled, are forfeited; but that our agricultural
lands generally, however granted or held,
shall henceforth be open to acquisition only
by actual settlers under the homestead laws.
Included in these forfeitures are over four
teen million acres granted to the Texas Pa
cific, nearly forty millions granted to the At
lantic and Pacific, over thirty seven millions
to the Northern Pacific, two millions to the
Oregon Central, nearly twenty-one millions
to the Southern Pacific, and other amounts Of
somewhat smaller dimensions to the Atlantic,
Gulf and West India Transit, the Sioux City
and St. Paul and various Southern roads.
The restoration of these lands will be in
accordance with justice, fair dealing and sound
business principles. 1t is an announcement
to the great and grasping corporations, which
have sought to fasten their hold upon these
subsidies from the Government, for which
they have rendered no return nor performed
their part of the contract, that they must stand
upon the same level with the humblest indi
vidual settler, who seeks to acquire his patent
to an eighty acre tract through an evasiye and
fraudulent REDEMPTION.
1t is an indication, moreover, that the era
of wholesale plumber, during which the rail-
way corporations, through the reckless bounty
vi inc OONcTHuleul, ildNc tOutIhCu W dbSoiD
such enormous areas of the public domain, is
at an end. The policy thus foreshadowed by
the House, and in a manner so conclusive and
peremptory, must become the policy of the
Government. 1t cannot be gainsaid or ig
nored by the Senate. 1t is in reality the voice
Of the people.
The Philadelphia Ledger says Though n
very large majority of the House of Repre-
sentatives voted for Mr.. Holman's resolution
stating the general proposition that unearned
land grants should be declared forfeited, it
will not be such an easy matter perhaps to
get them to agree to the details of the law
prepared to carry that opinion into effect
There are, however, millions of acres of pub
lie lands offered to railroads that ought to be
reclaimed by the Government and held for
the use of actual settlers. The Government
has been extravagant in giving away its great
domain, and it is time for an exercise of broad
economy. All that was given to the railroad
companies was not wasted; they have earned
large part of their grants by bringing other
Government lands into the market, but that
which they have not earned they should not
be allowed to hold