The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1885-12-19
THE PUBLIC LANDS,

THE PUBLIC LANDS,
Commissioner Sparks. OF the General
Land Office at Washington, places us under
obligations for an advance copy OF his re-
port for the year 1885.
1t is said occasionally by newspaper cor
respondents of Commissioner Sparks that
OF all the higher grade officials at Wash
inpton he is the most snappish, irascible
and difficult to approach, In recent run
through the departments in the federal
CITY" we had occasion to call on Commits,
sioner Sparks, and certainly, so far as our
experience went, found this newspaper
talk gross SANDER, tor no one ever treated
US more kindly, courteously and cordially
That he at times should lose his temper,
however, and be gruf and irascible, is not
20 be wondered at when one takes into &C
count the sort OF people he has mostly 70
deal with His report Is an Instructive rev.
elation on that head and would be amusing
II the case we're not altogether too serious
The fact is, that the public land system OF
the United States, as developed under 20
years of Republican rule, is little better
than an organized system OF public plum
der, and the men the public officials In
charge of the land department have to deal
with are with few exceptions little else
than rascals and thieves.
To begin with, the old system under
which, when public lands were surveyed
they we're at once offered at public sale or
opened 10 pre- empton or entry at $l,2o an
acre. has been entirely changed, and no
public land, except in five southern states,
can now be acquired except by pre.emp-
ton or on grant or a timber or soldier
claim, in parcels not exceeding l6o acres TO
one man. Now in the large farming ope-
rations that are carried ON in Minnesota,
Dacota and portions of Kansas and Nebras-
ka, and in the extensive grazing operations
in Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and
Arizona, 100 acres are drop in the bucket,
In them selvas worthless, land being availa
BILE there for profitable use only in bodies
CT 5000 to 10000 acres.
Consequently any individual or company
proposing TO go into "business" In any OF
the states or territories named must begin
by getting hold Of 5000 to 10000 acres of
land They cannot buy 1t of the govern
can get 1t only OF presumption.
ers or railroad companies, or through frau.
dulsnt old Mexican or other grants" One
common dodge is to organize band OF
preemptioners or timber claim
ants; another to trump up some played out
old grant; and another Is to squat" on half
a township, fence 1t In, and set the authori-
ties at defiance The result is, rs the Com
missioner says, that "the vast machinery of
the Land Department is mainly devoted to
the public lands upon fraudu
lent pre-. emption claims or Illegal claims
under public and private grants" and the
public surveying service has come to be re.
garded as mere agency TO condone irreg
ularities and frauds.
But even this extensive system of prey
ing upon the public lands is small compar.
ed to the devastation the public domain has
suffered from railroad grants, though the
shows that but 1900 miles
Of railroad have been constructed in twenty
years under the land grant system, while
within half that time 10000 miles, through |
regions equally wild and desolate, have
Been constructed without public aid And
his Is not the worst Of 1t. Grants have been
made 70 about $4,000 miles of railroad, and |
the Commissioner finds that the rate at
which lands have been oveIdrawn by these
roads Is full 500 acres per mile or 10000
200 acres, WEIGH have hitherto been treated
~ the absolute property Of these corpora
ions but Is In fact pablo land of the T.. s.
And last, here 10 be noticed, is the syste-
matte plumber to which the ttmbered lands
If the government are subjected. "Depra-
iatlons upon public timber are universal,
iagrsnt and limitless. Steam saw mills are
established promlscuously on public lands
for the manufacture Of lumber procured
from the public domain by miscellaneous
lrespassers, engaged in large operations,
employing hundreds, and In some cases
of men,"
This Is the sort of system, and these are
the kind of men, Commissioner Sparks has
10 deal with. No wonder they sometimes
find him "brlstling with porcupine quilts.
He would not be an honest man were II
and 1t is to hoped he will contin.
ue to make himself disagreeable and trou.
blesome 10 them until the whole vile bl God
Is exterminated.
Hon " T. took has armed the pDsi