Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1886-10-13
SPARKS REPORT,

Our Republican contemporaries who
have wasted oil and ink in anathematixina
Commissioner Sparks and who have at.
tempted to make some Of his rulings an
issue in this campaign will find much food
for profitable reflection in his report which
appears in last Sunday mornings MlEER.
The w%ell-informed among them will remem.
Der hat during the last year Of President
Arthur's administration the General Land
Office at Washington was flooded with com.
plants from every portion Of the West,
notably from Dakota, of fraudulent entries
OF the public domain under the s~everalland
acts, and it will also aforementioned that the
Department at Washington paid little or q
attention to three complaints, but with
cuipable indifference to the interests of the
people, or through collision With parti.s
who were grabbing up the public lands oil
the country issued patents for these
fraudulently obtained lands with the reeu-
larity Of clock work. We say every we'll
informed man remembers these facts.
When President Cleveland formed his
cabinet the heads OF the several depart
ments commenced the Herculean task OF
cleaning out the Augean stables with which
they were confronted. Commissioner
Sparks struck a foul one. Upon every
hand he discovered evidences of fraud and
corruption. Here he found millions Of
acres of the public domain illegally and
.rongfully held by railroad corpor-
ations; there he unearthed powerful
lumber combinations despoiling the forests
of the West for their own aggrandizemeut.
In another quarter he saw large
area OF Government land fenced
in by wealthy cattle syndicates
who persistently debarred small
stock owners from the streams which
flowed through the great cattle ranges Of
the country, and all around him were
glaring proofs OF fraudulent entries Of the
public domain under the presumption. tim
Der culture and desert land laws. Turn
which way he would he was NIT by evil
dences Of fraud, ard wrong and corruption.
1t was deep, %sickening and pestilent, and to
get his breath and to gain time % purify
the several Land Offices in the West and
furthermore to get somewhere within reach
Of his work, with the stupendous labor be-
fore him Of correcting the evils and the
wrongs being imposed ON the people, in the
OF the moment issued that IA
rnous order suapending all applications to
lands under certain specified acts
the second of June last until the first
day OF August following. A howl was
raised and the order was Immediately re-
scinded.
This put Sparks on his metal and the fur
flew. He made railroad corporations re.
turn 40, OOO, 900 acres of lands %wrongfuily
held by them through Republican conni-
vance, to the public domain. He has
already cancelled the entries of ITS. 900
acres as fraudulent; with 1,4S5 cases rom
tanning 225,OOc acres yet to determine.
He has pulled down the fences on LIZA, 926
acres of public lands and is now examining
forty-seven cases embracing 3,75O,OOO
acres OF government lands illegally fenced
by great cattle corporations to the detri.
ment of poorer and smaller cattle raisers.
He has under consideration 1919 cases OF
Expectations upon government timber
lands by monopolists. involving $685.
679 and has recovered to the United States
about 81. OOO, 900.
We submit it if this is not an excellent
showing for less than two years
work and that in accomplishing it Mr..
Sparks has not protected the public inter-
est rather han administered to the advan.
tase OF spectators and monopolists, pri
vale or corporate" F%air.minded men will
unite in crediting Commissioner Sparks
with an honest desire to protect the govern
ment lands and to preserve them 'for in
habitancy by actual c%nltivators OF the soil''
to whom they ~rightfully belong. Let per-
hate say what it may, Mr.. Sparks has
himself to be the poor mans friend.
history will accord him that
need OF praise.