, 1886-06-13
A GOOD WORD.

The commissioner of the general land
Office has been the best abused official
| connected with the administration, and
every mistake or scmblance of mistake
made BY him has been subjected to I'M
sparing criticism. without allowance or
cxtenuation. The fact that he has prac-
tically been endorsed by almost the entire
house of representatives seems neither to
excuse him nor to involve them in the
same odium. Every appearance indicates
that he will receive the same practical en-
dorsement from a Republican senate, but
it will be found of little weight with his
Republican detractors. To All unpreju-
diced mind, however, as the mistakes of
Commissioner Sparks are less injurious
than the reckless ignorance which lies at
the bottom of much congressional legisla-
ton, so they are also less culpable. Any
careful reader CT the very able report made
by the commissioner to the secretary OF
tie interior before the commencement of
the present session Of congress, will see
that Commissioner Sparks had more than
a suiicienoy OF information as to fraudu-
lent land transactions to put him upon
inquiry and to make him naturally more
open to suspicion than he otherwise
might have been. His administration of
his difficult Office has been faithful accord
ing to the lights before him. If he has
shown want of knowledge of the peculiar
character Of the land in the territories, he
has. but partaken of the general ignorance
which is about to infict a blow upon the
prosperity of the West by repeating what
the commissioner only attempted to sus-
pend. A fair and truthful state ment of
the cause Of cutlery against Mr.. Sparks is
the following from a Republican journal,
the Omaha Bee.
''The howl against the land commits
sioner arises from the fact that for the
first time, with one exception, in twenty
five years the Office is in the hands of a
man who cares more for the interests Of
actual settlers than for the pocketbooks Of
railroad wreckcrs, land syndicates and
pre- cmption grabbers. The surgeons
knife has been used freely to cut off the
excrescnces which have grown with the
growth of the operations of our land laws
and the vigorous policy Of fcrreting out
fraud and jobbery has stricken dismay TO
the hearts of the ~plunderers of the public
domain.
MIR Sparks has made mistakes. But
unlike his predecessors every mistake
made has been in the line OF a more rigid
execution of the laws for the purI ose of
preserving the remnants of a magnificent
landed inheritance for actual tillers of the
soil. He has made no mistake which,
contrary to the laws, has donated millions
of the public land to giant corporations.
He Las made no mistake through which
wealthy syndicates have been able to d.
vert vast sections of the public domain to
their own personal aggrandizcmcnt. He
has committed no error hat has caused a
suspicion of his honesty on the part of
honest men. And that is why the chorus
against Sparks rings along every water
course m%onopolized by bogus pre-emptors.
floats in waves of sound across miles of
timber claims on which a tree has never
lourished, and echoes loudly from the
offices Of great monopolies, whose dishon-
est posses sions have been wrested from
their grasp by the strong arm of the gem
cral land commissioners.