New Ulm weekly review., 1886-12-15
vas giyen wlthout price. the sole CONDITION. be-

was given without price. the sole conditions be-
ing residence. Improvement and cultivation
Other laws have followed, each designed to en-
courage the requirement and use of land in linn
tied individual quantities. But in late years
these laws. through vicious administrative
methods and under changed conditions of com.
munlcatiOn and TRANSFORMATION, have been so
evaded and violated that their benefcent pur-
pose 1s threatened with entire defeat. The
methods OF such eyasi0ns and violations are set
1orth in detail In the reports OF the secretary Of
the interior and commissioner Of the general
land Office. The rapid appropriation of our pub-
lie lands without bona fee settlements OF civ
ll1zation, and not only without intention of res
ldence, but for the purpose OF their aggregation
in large holdings in many cases in the hands OF
Ioreigners. invite the serious and Immediate at
tentlOn of congress. The earnings of the land
department. have been devoted during the pres
ent administration to remedy defects and
CORRECT ABUSES
in the public land service The results Of these
efforts are so largely in the nature Of reforms in
the practice and methods Of our land system as
to prevent adequate estimates; but it appears
from compilation from the reports of the COM
missioner OF the general land Office that the I'M
mediate effect in leading cases which have come
to final termination has been the restoration
to the masses OF public lands aggregating
$3.50 600 acres; that 2,37O,O 900 acres are en-
braced in Investigations now pending before the
department OF the courts, and that action of
congress has been asked to effect the restoration
Of 2.79O,OOO acres additional; besides which
1000, 600 acres have been withheld from reserva-
ton and the rights OF entering thereon main
tanned I recommend the repeal of the pre-.
emption and timber-culture acts, and that the
homestead law be SO amended as to require res
1dence for the period Of five years from date Of
entrv without Communication or provision for
speculative REIMBURSEMENT. I also recommend
the repeal of the desert land laws, unless it
shall be the pleasure Of congress to amend
these laws as to render them less liable to abuse
As the chief motive for the evasion of the laws,
and the principal cause Of their result in land
accumulation instead Of land distribution il the
facility with which transfers are made Of the
right intended to be secured to settlers. it may
be deemed advisable to provide by legislation
some guards and checks upon the alination of
vested rights and lands covered thereby until
patent sissue. Last year an executive proclama-
tion was issued directing the removal of fences
which inclosed the public domain Many of
these have been removed in obedience to such
order, but much of the public land still remains
within the lines Of these unlawful fences. The
ingenious methods resorted to in order to con-
tinue these trespasses and the hardihood of the
preteuses by. which in some cases such in
closures are justified are fully detailed in the
report of the secretary Of the interior. The re-
moval of the fences still remaining which in
close public lands will be enforced with all the
authority and means with which the executive
branch of the government is or shall he invested
by congress for that purpose