The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-08-08
B. R. GRANTS AND HoNEsTEADs.

The settlers ON public lands along
the line of the Texas Pacific railroad
have u most Jealous and persistent
friend in ex- Congressman E. L. Lewis;
and whether their champion is finally
successful or not in his contest with
the subrogee of the transferee of the
Backbone Railroad Company, he is
already entitled to the gratitude and
confidence of these settlers for his
efforts to save their homes for them.
Mr.. Lewis has recently prepared and
published an elaborate history OF the
transactions which finally led up to a
quasi recognition of the claims Of the
Texas Pacific road adverse to the set
tiers, who had supposed their titles
under the homestead act would be un-
questioned soon as sufficient time had
elapsed to apply for their patents.
The object of the government in
enactlng the HON estead law and grant
ing aid to constructors of railroad
was twOf0ld. The first was expected
to secure the settlement Of the national
domain by hardy, industrious farmers,
whose cultivation and development Of
the soil would add to the general
wealth and strength. By the second
the government endeavored to secure
the means for the people to carry their
products to market; to afford them
mail facilities and transportation from
one place to another. These two OBJ
jects are far from being antagonistic.
The people need the railroad, and the
directors of the road, if they expect
to build 1t up, need the people. Each
is, when acting under honest impulses;
necessary to the other. If, however,
the railway managers are intent only
on building just enough road and max
ing enough reputation to enable them
to unload their stock at a high price,
they would prefer to sell their lands at
any price to having them decreed to
be the property of. the settlers. To
company which expects to own and
operate road from here to the Texas
line near Marshall, an acre Of titled
land in the hands of a farmer is worth
more than the price in hand of ten
acres of wild land. Yet if the com
pany continues to fight the people, it
is very doubtful whether it wonld find
purchasers, especially as the best title
it could give might be open to grave
questions as to legality The deter
mined warfare which has heretofore
been waged against the settlers may
be suggestive of the intent to wreck
the road after all that can be made
shall have been realized on the stock.
Such hostility as has been manifested
is antagonistic to any ideas of the mu-
tuality of interest which exists be-
tween q permanent proprietor of a
great line Of transportation and the
resident population. Already the OBJ
jects Of the law have peen postponed
and partially defeated. The company
has not yet constructed and equipped
q first-class road between New Orleans
and Shreveport, and its persistent
claims to lands which it certainly has
never fairly earned, have doubtless
discouraged and retarded the settle
ment of others.
One result of the recent land grab
bling by corporations which show a
greater aptitude to apply for patents
than to comply with the conditions OF
the grants, will be to make Congress
more cautious in future similar cases.
In the very act out of which. this
Backbone dispute grew, the rights Of
pre- emptors was specially reserved ;
but the date of the attaching of PEE
emption rights is not. very clearly de-
! fined. One thing, however, seems rea-