Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-02-03
A REPUBLICAN ON SPARKS.

No man in the employment of the
Government has been more abused than
Land-Commissioner Sparks. This abuse
has been heaped upon him merely be-
cause he has attempted to carry out the
law, and because some laws have been
harsh in their working the Commissioner
is blamed for it. He is not responsible
for the laws which control his department,
but he is responsible for their enforce
ment. The Republican Tribune of this
city has delighted right along in abusing
him most shamefully, and abusing him
for the same reason that the people of
Utah abuse the courts here-because
they enforce laws that are obnoxious to
the peor,e of Utah. The Chicago Tribune
of tn 5s'4 ult. contained the following
comL 4lcation from the Honorable E. B.
Wash,urne, and we gladly give it place
in our columns, that the people OF Utah
may see in what estimation Mr.. Sparks
is hod in the East:
L 'itor of the Tribune: see that the Hon.
William a. j. Sparks, Commissioner of the
Land Office at Washington, is the subject of
many violent attacks by certain news
papers, as well as by the stipendiaries of the
land grant railroads. l have no personal
acquaintance with Mr.. Sparks, and have
never seen nial, and we are as far apart
politically as it is possible for any two men
to be. But desire to say that in all that I
have read in IL Dect to his administration
of the General and Office l see nothing
which justi4sS the lacks which have been
made upon l.,7, 50 lar as | can Judge.
In respect 20 nis decisions they are sub
stantially just and in accordance with law.
Ii persons affected by such decisions are
dissatisfied, it would be far better for them
to exercise their right OF appeal to have such
decisions reviewed than TO be assailing the
Commissioner through the newspapers.
before the Secretary OF the Interior, Mr.
Lamar, whom 1 have known, since some
years previous to the breaking out of the
war, as member of Congress from Missis-
sippi and a member of the Committee of
Commerce of the Horse Of Representatives
of which 1 was the chairman: and can state
that he is not only very able man, but a
very just and conscientious man, who can
be trusted in any matter of appeal that may
come before him. And then, on law ques-
tions, the opinion of the Acknowledgement
could be had, who is an able lawyer, and, I
believe, an honest man.
The General Land Office, for the last fif-
teen or twenty years, has, according to my
Judgment, been the most corrupt department
that ever existed in any government ON the
face of the earth. For years and years the
land jobbers and the land grabbers seemed
to have had full sway there, and it is quite
time they were rooted out. And | am glad
to find that an Illinois man like Mr.. Sparks
has had the courage to attack these stu
nnnnnuG n In n 10
for the benefit of the people at large some
portion of the public lands which had been
obtained from the Government by the rail-
road companies. Ihope that his hands may
be strengthened and that he will continue
in the course that he has laid out for him
self. Some say that a pressure has
been made upon the President and upon the
Secretary of the Interior, Mr.. Lamar and
that it will be necessary for him to be re-
moved. 1t is impossible to believe that such
can be the case; that an honest, faithful,
and incorruptible public officer should be
bounded out of his place by the men whose
action he has exposed, and who is making
such laudable efforts, as think he is, to get
back for the Government hundreds of mil
lions of acres of public lands which have
been literally filched from it by the land
grant railroads.
In respect to these railroad grants Mr..
Sparks seems to be travelling in the same di-
tOSpioll Will cuoSc dySOli, buc dDlo h6puD-
lican Representative from this State, who is
making reputation before the country for
the energetic action he has taken in the
House of Representatives to get back for the
benefit of the settlers and for the public
generally, portion of the lands which the
railroads have grabbed through the con-
nivance and corruption of the General Land
Office. Mr.. Sparks deserves to be COM
mended for his actions rather than de-
nounced, and for one wish to bear toward
him as well as toward Judge Payson, my
sincere thanks for the course which they
have taken. E. B. WAsHBuRNE.
CHICAGO, January 81.