The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-11-25
THE LAND LAWS.
Commissioner Sparks New
Interpretation of Them.
THE MARINE BANK ROGUEs.
The Convention of Cowboys in St.
Loufs-The Tar-SmalI-pox-
The Relief Fund-Etc.
THE MARINE BANK RoGUEs
THE LAND Laws
Commissioners Sparks Gives Them a
New Interpretation

WASHINGTON. November %. = Com
missioner Sparks has recently made a
ruling which is probably destined to
have an important influence upon the
course of transactions in public lands.
He has decided in substance that the
Communication of homestead is IN effect
and law the turning of the entry into a
pre-emptIon, and as such is Illegal when
the claimant has previously had the
benefit of the presumption law Since
the passage of the homestead law it has
become the almost universal practice
for settlers to secure claims under both
that and the presumption law, in addi-
ton to which they have usually taken
the benefit of the timber culture law,
thus aggregating under the three laws a
maximum estate of 4S0 acres to each
settler. 1t has been customary to take
up the presumption and tree claim"
at once and after lapse of the shortest
necessary interval, to mortgage the
former for enough to pay the govern
ment price of it, when, having secured
the title, the settler was at liberty to
move away and take the benefit of the
homestead law. The ruling of the COM
missioner is calculated to put an end to
this practice. 1t leaves the settler still
the right to secure either pre-emption
on a homestead in addition to his "tree
claim" and as far as the ruling itself
goes, it leaves him the right to secure a
pre- emption claim in the usual way and
then secure a homestead by living upon
the land five years, but the latter right
General Sparks does not concede. 1t
has been stated that he has made a rul-
ing to the effect that no person is en-
titled to the benefits of both the pre-
emption and homestead laws. This is
incorrect, no such ruling having been
made. There is reason to believe, how
ever. that when this question comes be-
fore him in a way to demand formal
ruling on the subject, he will hold that
in passing the homestead law, Congress
intended to give the choice to settlers
of limited means by affording them
method for obtaining 160 acres of land
without other outlay except the pay
ment of the customary fees, in place of
purchasing under the presumption law.
Such ruling, he says, would be in con-
currence with the views which have in
spired the movement now being made in
Congress to repeal the pre-emptlon
law outright, and should the timber Gull
ture law be repealed it would have the
effect of restricting the area obtainable
by single claimant to one quarter sec
ton. General Sparks holds the two
laws, homestead and pre-emption,
standing together, and interpreted as
they have heretofore been, offer a temp
tation to fraud, and place a premium
upon it. The hope of securing a second
! claim is held out by one law, as an in
ducement to make the settlement and
improvements upon the first claim of
| the most temporary, inexpensive char
acter, simply designed to make false
show of good faith and to "swear by -
as Immediately after final proof or com
imitation, as the case may be, they are
/ to be abandoned and another residence
| established upon claim number two.
General Sparks holds that if Congress
/ designed to give the same settler the
| benefit of both laws, it would not have
! imposed upon him requirements to es-
tablish temporary home in one place,
only to be abandoned for another with
in few months. Should the ruling in
Dictated as probable never be made, that
already made prohibiting the commu-
tation of homestead claims by persons
who have previously been pre-emptors
will still, he believes, have an important
result in preventing to a considerable
extent speculation in claims. The OBJ
legation to live FIVE years upon a claim
is a test of good faith to which only
actual farmers who desire land for their
own cultivation will care to submit.