Morris tribune., 1885-12-09
9Iopzio Spi8ut,e.
Published Wednesdays.
Official Paper of Stevens County.
r. w. RANDALL,
Publisher.
STARTLING STATEMENTS,
TAKEN FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT
OF COMMISSIONER SPARKS,
Alleging That Certain Railroad Corpora
tions Have Overdrawn Land Grants
to the Extent of 10, 900, 900 Acres
The Senate Presidency.


il. Sparks, commissioner Of the general hand
oEice, in his annual report makes the follow
ing statements:
During the last fiscal year the sales, en-
tries and selections of public land under
various acts of congress relating thereto EN-.
brace 20113, ,66S.37 acres, and of Indian
lands SS1 $50 q acres, making total Of 20,-
a95,Ha5 5s acres, being a decrease, as com.
pared with the year 1884, of 6, 6,5S5, ,656. Al
acres, and an increase over the year 1888 OF
1,565, rs acres The receipts from the
disposals Of public lands are s., ,G96, us; from
sales Of Indian lands, $9S3, ,4S3; total OF
$S, ,619, 59s, being decrease, as compared
with the year 1884, of 81, 159, ,5S2, and with
1888 of IS, OS6, 1917, to which is to be added
$S,S2l for certified copies of records furnished
by the general land Office, making the total
receipts for the year from all sources 81, ,62S, )
40 The public surveys during the year
embraced over 81 ,000, 900 acres.
The widespread belief of the people of this
country that the land department has been
very largely conducted to the advantage Of
speculation and monopoly, private and cor
porate, rather than in the public interest,
have found supported by developments in
every branch Of the service. It seems that
the prevailing idea running through this
Office and those subordinate to it was that
the government had no distinctive rights to
be considered and no special interests to pro
teet; hence, as between the government and
spoilers Of the public domain, the govern
ment usually had the worst Of it. I am sat
isfed that thousands of claims without foun-
dation in law and equity, involving millions
of acres Of public land, have been an
nually passed to patent upon the single
proposition that nobody but the government
had any adverse interest. The vast ma
chinery of the land department appears to
have been devoted to the chief result Of COW
ering the title of the United States to public
lands upon fraudulent entries under strained
constructions of imperfect public-land laws
and upon illegal claims under public and
private grants. That such looseness in the
administration Of trusts of the magnitude Of
railroad land grants should have resulted in
excessive allowances to companies claiming
all land within the possibilities of their
reach was inevitable. An adjustments Of the
grant for the Alabama g. Florida railroad in
Alabama, now about completed, shows that
the granted limits were overdrawn to the
amount of 27,723.S So acres, or at the rate OF
245 acres per mile. An average over
withdrawal of the six-mile limits of the
grant for the Winona & ST. Peter road in
Minnesota Is shown at the rate Of about $50
acres per mile, making total enlargement
Of the grant in original limits to the amount
of nearly 10000 acres, besides further en-
largsment Of indemnity limits amounting to
for this road, as before noted, over 200 600
acres are found to be outside of all imita
An accurate measurement of q section of
fov&- v,,sloc Nf tod lsr,,ifc ~ Tho
Atchison, Topeka e. Santa Fe road
in Kansas shows that 1900 acres
have been treated as granted lands for
that lsngth of road which were outside of
the true line of the ten-mile limit of the
grant; and further computations show that
tbs overdrawn lands on the whole line will
aggregate about 1000 acres, or at the rate
Of 500 acres per mile Overwithdrawals for
the Missouri, Kansas & Texas road, in Kan
sas, are indicated at the rate Of about 500
acres per mile. The lines of the grant
for the Kansas Pacific road are shown
to have been generally widened from half
mile to o mile and half throughout its en-
tire length, with larger additions at certain
points. At the Denver terminus of the
the Kansas Pacific and Denver Pacific
roads, q body of land embracing up
ward Of 200, 900 acres, situated en-
tirely beyond the termini of the grants
and not embraced in either of
them, are found included in the previous
designations and Withdrawals of granted
lands. Present estimates are that the aver
ago rate per mile of road at which lands
heye been overdrawn will reach 500 acres
per nile The total length of constructed ]
and uncontrolled land-grant road for which
Withdrawals have been made exceeds 5000 4
Sa5ies:: At an average rate of 500 acres per
mile the aggregate area Of overdrawn lands
will amount to 10000, 600 acres, which vast
amount has hitherto been treated as the abb
solute property Of the corporations, but is In
fact public land of the United States, rs- 1
coverabls to the public domain,