St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-06-04

desert has been made to rejoice with the
busy activities of trade and the content of
prosperous people. Commercial marts have
been filled with opulence. The farmer
and the merchant alike have been enriched
and the aggregate wealth of the community
and the state has been enlarged. The pub
lie is willing to concede to the railroad COM
panies all the credit that is due them. The
railroad corporations have not been content
with the prodigal and lavish gifts re-
ceived from the nation. While the
judgment of the American people condemns
this wanton waste of the public domain,
still, the compromising advantages derived
from the construction of the roads would
have reconciled the people to the waste of
their patrimOny which the Republican party
gave away to these great corporations.
They were not content with what was given
them, but have entered upon systematic
course of Swindling and chicanery that has
so outraged public sentiment as to make it
no longer endurable. 1t is not necessary to
recall the history of watered stocks of the
stupendous frauds in construction, of the
immense salaries, all going to swell the
capital and expense of operating the roads,
nor of the outrage upon shippers by fixing
schedule of tariff rates sufficiently high to
meet the dividends on watered stocks and
the extraordinary expenses thus created.
And they have made continued efforts to grab
lands never intended to be conveyed by the
government by pursuing methods such as
are described by our Blue Earth
dapt o,,d in, no
exposed by the interior department in con-
nectiOn with the Southern Pacific line.
There is very fruitful reform field for
Secretary LAMAR to work in while uncOv-
eTing all the land swindles perpetrated by
the railroad companies, through the cOnniv-
ance of former heads of the land bureau.
The beginning that he and Commissioner
SPARKS have made is encouraging. The
splendid patIimony of the public domain
was acquired by our Democratic fathers.
Much of it has been wasted by the Repub-
lican party. 1t has been granted to railroad
corporations, and millions of acres of it have
been transferred to syndicates and foreign
holdings, whose avOwed object is to hold
the lands as close corporations and not for
settlement OF for use and cultivation in
small tracts. Under Republican admins
trations cattle companies have gone on to
the public domain and fenced the lands
in without so much as asking permission.
They have shut up United States mail routes
and enclosed the homes of the settlers, for
bidding them free ingress to and egress
from the lands claimed in 160-acre tracts by
them. Against this wretched policy this
outrageous parceliHg of the public domain
to a few corporations and syndicateS of
titled foreigners the people have sent up an
earnest protest and the Democratic admin
istration is expected to heed their voice in
this matter The time has fully come when
the raScalS must go. The secretary of the
interior should at once make thorough in
vestigatiOn of every land grant that has
been issued by the government. Much of
it can be recovered and much can be done
toward preserving what remains. Every
| foot of land claimed or occupied by corpo-
rations and syndicates to which they have
not clear and absolute title should at once
be taken possession of by the government
and held for the use of the people. A policy
Of this kind cannot be entered upon too
soon by the interior department OF pushed
too vigorously.