The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1885-04-24
THE GENHRAL LAND OFFIcE.


II Commissioner sparks has any no
tion OF reform n government. beyond
ne retention. careful coddling. and
promof ion Of people in Once for the rea-
son that they are gn ofsce. he will find
plenty of work before bim IN his new
round % duties.
Fraud and waste IN the administra-
tior of public affairs have nowhere been
more conspicuous and gross than ia the
land system. So vast have been the spo-
liatiOns OF the public domain. and so
bold the evasions or open defiance of
tbe homestead aud pIeemption laws,
that some AZ least Of these wrongs must
obviously have been effected through
the connivance or the active completely
OF Government officials It was not
enough that during the thirty years
from 1880 to 1850 grants of 154. .067. .553
acres OF the public domain were made
for railroad purposes, but in addition
many millions of acres have been stolen
by powerful corporations through viola
tiOu of the statutes Commissioner
Sparks's predecessor pointed out that
lands worth from S25 to 500 per acre
have been sold for less than So. Some
years ago great tract was pTeempted
as desert land, wheTeupon the owner of
Iilt HuJUlllUE RIOulu Stub ~ bll5 1ultIl-
or Department an ironical comment on
the supposed unproductiveness Of the
tract so preemDted in the shape of
sweet potato weighing seventeen pounds
grown on his own soil of precisely the
same character. Timber lands, too,
have been grasped BY foreign companies
In defiance of the laws, and have then
been rapidly stripped of their trees, to
the detIiment of the surrounding re-
glon. The prospective result of the
manv and vsrious land frauds and land
graboinRs was thus set forth by Com
missioner McFariaad:
''The time is near at haud when there will
be no public lands to invite settlement or
afford citizens of the country sp opportuuI-
~ to secure cheap homes. Meanwhile vast
stretches OF uncultiyated LANDS afS every
where obseI vab'e. title to which has been
acquired by evasiols of law. The numerous
methods of disposal now existing and the
laXity OF precautionary provisions against
niisapprOpriatiOn are resulting in a waste of
the public domain, without the comDensa-
ton attendant npoD small Ownerships for
actual settlement"
1t is beyond question that millions of
acres have been illegally fenced by cat
tie companies, while fraudulent entries
have been constantly Increasing. We
find in Com missioner McFaTland's last
duuudl report llSb Oh 4OO iraQOulent
tentries in Dakota that had been investi-
| sated during the previous II months.
1 OR in. Colorado, 139 in California, S27
! IN NAw Mexico, 311 in Minnesota, 100
10 Wilmington Territory, 40 in Ne
oTasKa, NS2 in Kansas, and so on with
oCher stars and Territories. A land
1 agent 10 NeS Mexico computes that 80
per cent, or TN entries there are fraud
ulent. ana an a9ent~tn Dakota assigns a
! like character to eAree. ont of eyery four
entries there. The Generai Land Of
fee investigates such fraudulent ~ntries
as are complained of by settlers or osh-
ers who have access to the required in
i formation.
Sach are some of the existing fac,s
under which Commissioner Sparksaakes
charge of the Land Once. Apparently
for many years there must bae6 been
both inadequaey in the laws and inehf-
1 cheney in their execution to produce sucf
results. In some Instances it appear:
upquestiopablet that registers and reeeiv
ers have been corrupt Commissioner
Sparks has given indications of a pur
pose to investigate frauds by suspendiBl
rou1Be acl ion on certain classes OF laisC
entries until inquiries into their chsrae
ter can be made. IftTue administrative
reform should ever begin anywhere will
turning the rascals out, it is where Gov
eminent agents must apparently hav'
aided 10 the commission of wrongs eth.
se-- ~ -egis eaaicRasT- --hv eeesptiEag bribe
Tor assistanee 81 SITeIfce.--N 1.x,s,.