Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-05-29

tton a. I:a.d S1atrass.
1 Washington Special he order issued By
the connaissio sot the general land Office,
dated April 8. declaring that final action upon
all entries Of the public land, except private
cash entries and such scrip locations as are not
dependent upon settlement and cultivation,
should hereafter be suspended II Colorado. Dar
kota, Idaho, Utah, Washington Territory. New
sm Cart 81 nsa ssa
and also declaring that final action should be
suspended upon al timber entries throughout
the country, has caused great controversy in
the territories named and decided opposition
from the agents and attorneys ct Washington
ness Of securing patents for claimants.
It is claimed that the order in ques-5
ton is paralyzing land business in all
parts Of the country and doing great injury to
settlers who wish to prove up on their claims
SO that they can borrow money to 60 on with
the improvements of their lands Commissioners
Sparks said recently, when asked for his
opinion upon this point: ss u 3s ...ss IA
That order was intended to cover what term
infested districts have written number of
letters to people who are complaining about it,
and I want it thoroughly understood that there
tiers an injury. II IS only the knaves and
thieves that am after. I have dozens of let
tiers from persons living in these districts who
approve OF the order. They say that in many
regions not one entryin fifty is bona fide; that
it is business practice to do false swearing to
get q title to land Timber entries are almost
uniformly fraudulent Now it is to catch these
people that have said that we should sus-
pend final action on claims. This whole Office,
including the assistant commissioner, the law
clerk and the various chiefs, are in harmony as
to the necessity and wisdom Of that order. We
81
to be employed for the end desired One was
to close the local land offices; but in that event
settlers arriving in the district would find
|. themselves unable to locate. That plan would
not work Then it was suggested that we
close the land Office here, but that would be
for me to do except to say that would not ask
the secretary of the interior nor the president
to approve and sign patents when I believed
that fully one-hslf of them were fraudulent. In
this way believe have saved the public
domain,
FULLY MILLION ACRES
of land since April 8. The charge has been
ical in it's character, that the south was ex-
cepted There are but four states in the south
where the United States has land offices-Flor-
ida, Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas. Texas
owns her own lands. / fancy there is some
fraud in Florida. In due time will reach that
i
cause Secretary Lamar is asouthern man The
south was excepted because the bulk of fraud is
not in the South. There is five times as much
| territory in the North that is not included in
the order. Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, nearly
all of Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas are not
! included, and in two of these states--Michigan
and Wisconsin, know there is fraud that We
| ought to look after. TWAS not the Intention to
PROSTATE the land business all over the country.
Nothing of the kind has been done: What we
are really after ia to prevent the public domain
! from going into the hands of ranchmen and
Spectators. The bona fide settler can borrow
| just as much money on his certificate of entry
| or his duplicate papers as he can upon tie pat
| emit All the tirst-c]ass loan and trust COM
panies of the East desire to know is that the
borrower should be bona fide settler and thai
he will be entitled to patent 1t is the knavt
four hours. You will find that to-day in Hi.
nois forty out Of every one hundred entrymer
have never cotton their patents. They lie here
in this Office and the settlers were satisfied K
have simply the duplicates. But you will FIND
that the Louisina backbone patents were take1
patents have been taken in all cases where
| there is fraud.
! ENCOURAGING THE SETTLERS.
When I am satisfied that there is good faitl
| on the part of the settler, there will be no diff
ficulty in his getting patent I shall satisfy
myself by means of special agents and detec
tives whom I can thoroughly trust and upol
them + shall put such checks and counter de
lection as win make it absolutely certain tina
no false swearing Or fraud can secure pat
tent. I see that the fight is begun upon m
from the land Office lawyers here and al
over the west, and that the newspapers large
~ interested in the whole subject of LAM
Office business have opened fire upon me
but have determined to stand by the order
Meanwhile, bona 6de settlers all over the ives
pick out their land, file their entries upon it
and go on with their improvements. The lant
is theirs just as much during the Ave year
which the law requires them to stay upon it a
it ever can b. and if they are worthy peopll
there will be no difficulty in their borrowing i
| they need TO do SO. Cam OF see that, in orde
should allow thieves and rascals to take NIL
lions of the public domain by false swearing.