Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1886-03-27
SITTING ON SPARKS.
Lamar on the Br1ttln Case-Patents
to be Issued,


to be Issued.
WASHINGTON, D. G., March 1.-THE
tide is turning against Land Commits.
sloner Sparks. Yesterday Secretary La
mar signed q decision by Assistant Sec
rotary jerks to the effect that the com
missioner's position against allowing an
entryman, who had once used his pre-
emption right, to take a homestead and
then commute that to pre-cmption, is
untenable. Mr.. jerks says a man liv-
ing on the land Car buy the govern
mcnt's claim against him as q !,
buys his time. The money is the equiv
alent of the time. This had been the in
depreciation in effect for years, and the
secretary and his assistant ROW restore
and reinforce it.
But this is not the worst setback for
the commissioner. The Sd of last April
he decided that the issuing of patents in
all the newly settled sections of the west
should be stopped on the ground that a
vast amount of fraud had been and wal
being perpetrated. This order swept
over the entire west from Duluth and
the British border to Texas and to WASH
ington territory. Naturally it produced
a big howl. Money lenders. always a
numerous and an anxious class in new
countries, became alarmed for their Sc
curity. The newspapers and the land
lawyers began a vigorous fight OH Mr..
Sparks, who unwiscly allowed himselfto
talk very freely in reply to everything
said against him. But all the while he
stood firmly by his order and all efforts
failed to bulge him IN inch. Secretary
Lamar and the president were with him
and gave him to understand so in an
oblique way. This made Mr.. Sparks
bold, and his special agents and fraud
seekers were urged on to hunt out all
Irregularities they could. They succeed
cd, as a matter of course: but their sue
cess made it apparent that as our land
laws now stand a contest between tho
government and a land claimant was
entirely one-sided, and that the claim
ant has very little show against a charge
Of fraud by q special agent. This react
cd in the people in the west, and they
began to petition the president and the
secretary for n reversal Of Mr.. Sparks
order of April3. Delegations were sent
on from various territories. Good law.
ycrs were engaged to come to Washing
ton and fight "the peoples BATTLE" and
the delegates from the territories and
congressman from the west joined in a
memorial to Mr.. Cleveland showing the
injustice being done. Finally he yield
ed, and Mr.. jerks stated last Monday
that this week either Mr.. Sparks would
rescind his order or it would be done for
him by the secretary. There are sever
al hundred thousand patents that lie
banked up in the basement of the land
Office. accommodating rapidly every day
for the last year. Now these will pro.
coed to patent. Many that we're pre-
pared prior to last April will probably
have to be rewritten. The recorders
division, in which the land patents are
made up and countersigned, will have
its hands full for months to come, night
and day, if any attempt ~ made to meet
the demand for patents.
No decision made by Secretary Lamar
in his year of service at the head Of the
interior department has caused so much
jubilation among all classes Of people
interested in land settlement in the west
as that made yesterday in .thc Brittin
case. 1t affects hundreds Of thousands
of land claims, and, of course, indirectly
affects all classes of business interests
in the west. Money lenders arc espcc-
tally happy over it, as it cmoves q Sc
rious cloud on their securities in thou
sands of cases. Besides the immediate
effects, 1t indicates that there is to be a
breakup of the adverse policy Of the
general land office toward the newly set
tied regions Of the west. The text of the
decision, as addressed TO Commissioner
| Sparks, is as follows:
Two question are presented bv the is
sues made in this case:
/. Whether a person who has availed
himself of the benefit of the pre-emp-
ton act, and has received the full num-
Der of acres allowed under that act, can
also secure q additional l6O acres Under
I the homestead law.
2. Admitting that Il person who had
availed himself of the benefit of the pre-
emptlon act may also be entitled to the
benefit of the homestead act, whether a
Communication of the homestead entry to
a cash entry under Sec. 2.3O1, Revised
Statutes, is not All exercise of the pre-
emption right, and whether the allow
ance Of such an entry is not practically
awarding to such applicant a second
premption right?
In his report Of 1866 Commissioner
Wilson, in speaking Of the question
whether a 7 erson who commutes a home
stead entry can afterward enter other
land under the presumption act, says I:
On this point it has been ruled that
when a party legally entitled makes an
entry under the homestead law of May
20, 1862, and thereafter at any time after
the expiration of five years shall come
forward, make satisfactory proof Of his
actual settlement and cultivation to a
given day, and then pay for the tract,
the proceedings merely consumate his
homestead right. as the act allows. the