St. Paul daily globe., 1885-08-20
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE.
The peviI,s Lake Land Office,

To the Editor of the Globe:
Dear Sir: In reply to statement in
your paper of recent date signed by the
United States land officials of this place, 1
desire to present the true facts in the case.
These gentlemen state that there were two
newspapers published here when the land
Office opened for business, and in a short
time one of these papers became embar-
raSsed and was about to suspend publica-
tiOn when / came TO its rescue and for a
time continued its publication, when it went
out of existence; also that both papers re-
ceived notices until l changed the name of
the paper inserted by them in notice of pub
licatiOn of final proof, and began to abuse
them in an unwaTTanted manner, asking
for more patronage from them than then
received.
In answer to the foregoing. would say,
that the paper they refer to, viz, the Devils
Lake Pioneer Press, was in no danger at
that time of suSpending, as L had mort
gage of 81, 500 on the paper and was COM
PEELED TO maintain it. My paper never re-
ceived but seven or eight notices, which, by
an urgent personal request of the attorney
in these cases, were inserted in the paper
before l took charge of it, with the eX-
press understanding that the entire pro-
ceedS for publication were to go to the at
tOrney in liquidation of a debt due him by
Mr.. Treadwel, proprietor of the paper,
and two notices which were demanded by
two old friends of mine. For long time
after obtained control of the paper / re-
QueSted the editor To abstain from criticizing
the land officials m any way, as l thought
Mr.. Lord, the register, would make an
equitable division of the patronage, all of
which ne failed to do. The editor then
I Il
man told him he had made arrangements
with the Inter Ocean whereby it was to
have all the land office patronage coming to
this county, which, as a matter of fact, it
received. with very nearly all the patron
age of other counties. After this my paper
told the truth about this carpet-bag politi
clan and his unSavOry methods, which he is
pleased to term abuse.
never received a notice of final proof
from this Office, not one, hence never had a
chance to make any eraSureS. The land
officials were SO deeply interested in this
matter that they would not allow
the attorneys to transmit these no
tees TO the paper designated, but
did it themselves. They even went further
than this, they told my father-in-law, who
desired to patrOniZe my paper, that my own
father would be compelled to advertise in
tic 1nlCI OCCdu- -nd4tAl Os OCuuCSls u
spectacle citizen, was refused permission to
advertise in the Pioneer Press, although he
stated he would not make final proof unless
his request was aceeded to. This case was
appealed to the general land office at Wash
ington and promptly brought to the notice
of the commissioner by Senators Cockerell
and Plumb.
This Office received instructions relative
TO my complaint, part of which were quoted
in your paper viz: When there are one
or more papers, which are newspapers
within the meaning of the law, and
any one of which might be designated
under these instructions, you will use your
discretion in making the selection, and in
the reasonable and honest exercise of that
discretion you will not be interfered with by
this Office" In the first place, this order
did not meet squaTely the evils stated in my
complaint, as it afforded no remedy for
them, provided they existed. but this was
not surprised at, IS / could easily imagine
why the secretary, who would take one
tenth of town site to locate a land Office
there, would not object to his SubOrdinates
stealing ON much smaller scale.
In the second place, the United States re-
viSed statutes expressly provides that these
officials ''Shan not pay more than the
commercial rates" and may even
make lower rates if practicable.
such being the case, was 1t reasonable"
on the part of these upright officials to eX-
pect the settler to be willing 70 pay 81 more
than the commercial rate called for, or was
it ''honeSt" TO compel them to do so? As
to the status of my paper, 1t was news
paper. and so decided by the proper
authority, the pOstofiee department, and
was duly entered at the Creel City post
Office as second-class matter. Its circula-