St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-06-19

10 the Editor OF the Globe:
The thanks of the public are due to the
GLOBE for it's publication of the various
communications and editorials which have
appeared in it's columns relating to the ST.
Paul & Sioux City land grant. That an at
tempt has been made by that company, and
also by the Southern Minnesota Railway
company, to acquire title to thousands of
acres OF the public domain in this state in
direct violation of the terms of the land
grant acts is fact very easily established.
In both OF the acts making these grants it
is expressly stated that all lands On which
filing had been made prior to the attach
ment of the grants (which has been held by
the courts to be the date when the definite
line Of locations of these roads was filed
with the commissioner of the general land
office, shall be excepted from the opera
ton of the grants. The records of the
land office show that hundreds of thous-
ands of acres, now claimed by these roads,
were filed upon prior to the date when they
filed their definite lines of location, and
subsequently abandoned by the parties
who made such filings. These companies
have claimed that such abandonments
caused the lands so abandoned to revert to
them, while others have held that under no
circumstances could this be the case-that
the lands so abandoned reverted to the gov
eminent and became part of the public
domain. Under this latter view thousands
of acres have been covered by filings which
the local land offices have rejected, but
which applications are now before the in
terror department upon appeal. That the
action of the local land Office will be re-
versed and the filings accepted by the secre-
tary OF the interior is now an assured fact,
for the supreme court of the United States
in the case of the Kansas Pacific Railway
VS.. Dunmire, decided in March last, so
holds On state of facts exactly similar to
those above stated.
That there has been conspiracy between
certain government officials and the rail-
road companies to defraud the government
out of these lands is an irresistible conclu-
sion when all of the facts of the case are
known. That it will be defeated
by the courts and an honest
administration seems now to be an
assured fact. The people by a narrow
majority have wrested the administration
of the government from a party which has
persistently welded its power in favor of
corporations and monopolies, and put it in
the hands of an honest man who will see
that the wrongs and frauds of years are
righted and the interests of the people pro-
tected and INDICATED. Let me say right
here, that the assumed anxiety of Repub-
lican leaders and papers to discover an issue
for the campaign of 'sS will be largely sat-
isfed by the action which the present adj
ministration is taking in regard to the
gigantic frauds which have been perpetrated
in the interior department under Republican
rule, as well as in other departments of the
ONT md fhot ho wi how
will have to meet in 'SS will be the same as
that under which they were defeated in
's4, viz: Economy, reform and opposition
to the encroachments of corporate monopoly
and tariff robbery. The record which
Grover Cleveland is now making will render
him indispensable as the Democratic candi-
date in '88, and the result will be his re-
election by an overwhelming majority. At
least this is the opinion of Mugwump.
W. A. WILLIAMS.
Albert Lea, Mimi, June Is, 1885.