Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1886-09-20
THE |. & O. L. |. GO.
DAMAGING STATEMENTS CONCERN
ING 1T REFUTED.
None OF Its Laud Patents Have Been
or Can be Cancelled, Although 1t Is
Put to Considerable Annoyance by
Sparks's Special Agents.

Put to Considerable Annoyance BY
Sparks's Special Agents.
elbow about the newspaper reports
that your company has lost some To-
OOO OF its $4,000 acres of land through
the efforts of Special Agent Cald-
we'll and the Democratic Land De-
partment?" said TINES reporter to.
day to General Manager Strahorn, of
the Idaho & Oregon Land Improve.
ment Company.
"Wholly false - campaign bun
combe, | Think" said Mr.. Strahorn.
"Why, we have never owned or claim
ed to own near half of $4,000 acres,
and up to the present we have not
lost an acre. 1t is true that Commits.
sioner Sparks and his special agents
have done much to annoy and perse
cute US, as they have many others;
but if we have lost any lands as re-
suit of all this noise and expense the
Democratic reformers have INDUCED
in, | have yet to learn it."
"You mean to say that none of your
patents have been cancelled or repu.
dated by the Land Department." in
sistt d the reporter.
"Absolutely not, to the extent of
single acre. The Land Department,
in It's mistaken and mismanaged zeal,
with all the help of its army of preiu-
diced and prosecuting special agents,
cannot repudiate or annul land pat
ents, any more than it can unmake
United States statutes, which expert
ment, you know, it has also tried. 1t
takes United States courts to set aside
patents, thank God, and we all have
show for justice there
Sand there is nothing to show for
all this commotion except some little
political capital?" querled the reporter.
"Oh, yes; there is considerable to
show" sarcastically answered Mr.
Strahorn, "and you and l and every
other resident of the West are per-
sonally Interested in the showing
Our company, for instance, is simply
a partnership in which a dozen Oh
more Is number of them your neigh
bors) have combined their means tc
carry on development enterprises
which no individual in Idaho could
carry on alone. BY virtue of theil
Eastern connections they have beer
enabled to supply irrigation facilities
water works, canals, hotels, etc, OF
such a scale as would have been i'm
possible, out here, for years, if thu
matter had waited for local capital
1t is not necessary for me to call you
attention to the benefits arising from
drawing outside capital into new
and comparatively undeveloped coun
, try like Idaho. Every resident shares il
the benefits; every laboring man AM
home-seeker is vitality interested, 70
, to the former it furnishes employment
t at good wages, and to the latter
market for whatever he produces, an
without which market these arid land
would remain unsettled and arid fo
). all time. Now, in the case of GU
i company, 1t has been necessary in tn
}. prosecution of its various large ente
e prises to secure some 5000 or 600
II acres of land tout of Idaho's total
y 100000 acres of arabic area
n which we have done by perfectly leg
= innate and lawful means. In eac
location we have, with this small nj
t, cleus as a foundation, spent larg
g sums in reclaiming these and 9TH
a lands, and have virtually created con
Or munities, towns and hundreds OF tho
Dr. sands of dollars in assessed valuatlo
! now being heavily taxed to suppo
u this benefcent government. Som
times this pioneering has been dol
W in spots naturally so barren al
y, worthless that a jack rabbit or coyo
r. couldn't have been found upon thel
i'd even by one of Sparks's spec'
is AGENTS. and we have been tree
ne laughed at for tackling the task WIN
sv has finally developed into thrifty col
So muuities. 1t is hardly necessary
he add that our payrolls were, in maj
n instances, the only resource OF pc
'or colonists for their daily bread, and