Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-07-23

too liberal in its disposal of the public
lands and its liberalty has been shame
fully abused That hundreds OF thousands
of acres of government land have been
stolen, or obtained under false pretences,
evidence is not wanting to show. Public
lands can be taken up in five different
ways-by pre-emption, homestead, sol
dier's homestead timber culture and des-
ert reclamation. Now it is quite possible,
bya system of perjury and false swearing,
for unprincipled men to obtain possession
of numerous tracts of public land, at the
expense of honest settlers and the loss of
public revenue Thus titles tolarge estates
have been obtained by those VINO have
fulfilled hardly single one of the condi-
ditions prescribed in the statutes. 1t is
asserted that fully 80 per cent of the en-
tries in the territory of New Mexico are
fraudulent.
That these abuses of the governments
confidence have also been in some cases,
aided by the rascality or incOmpetency of
government land agents is very well
known. Some of the methods Of stealing
public lands are so transparent that it
would seem rs though the fraud could
ment's agents profess to be entire
ly innocent of the deception. For instance,
the cattle companies have secured inn
mense tracts of land, under the timber
culture law, by simply planting few
saplings amid some hundreds of rootless
sticks; and, although the first blasts of
spring have destroyed nearly all that is
planted the ranchman and his neghbors
have sworn that the trees are in good
growing condition. The desert reclama-
ton privileges have been abused by enter
ing claims for lands, which are good bot
tom tracts, rs though they were sterile.
This villany, which has operated to the
damage of many miles of back country,
has been accomplished with the aid of
surveyors in the employ of the land Office.
A corporation of foreigners, known as
the Maxwell Land company. has driven
honest settlers off land in New Mexico
and Colorado, pretending to have titles to
more than 100000 acres, whereas the ori-
ginal grant does not entitle it to more than
96,OO0 acres. Treaty stipulations between
the United States and Mexico have been
twisted, or falsely cited, to support the
claims of certain Spanish Americans to
! Vi luOuSduuS Vi AIRES III new
Mexico The statement is made that these
claims are greatly in excess of what the
several claimants are justly entitled to
hold under the treaties, the demands
| for patents being all the way from twice
to ten times the rights defined in the
original grants by the Mexican govern
ment.
All these abuses, of course, might he
stopped now-however far they have gone
in the past-by the repeal of the pre-emp-
ton, timber culture and desert reclama-
ton laws, which seem to be the most
abused. Congress, however, will proba-
bly, not repeal these laws at present. The
most, therefore, that can be done is to Sc
cure justice against the offenders in all
possible cases, at the hands of the law.
We are glad to learn that a case of this
kind has recently been tried in San Fran
cisco, IN which United States grand jury
has found indictments for subornation
of perjury against eight men, character
lied as leading citizens" three of whom
represent capital of 100000, and all
are said to be wealthy. This particular
rascality has been discovered through the
efforts of a special agent of the depart
ment of the interior. The men indicted are
members of the California Redwood com
pany, the capital of which is mainly
held in Scotland, and the steal was ac-
complished in the following manner
The indicted persons induced some 6Ot
American citizens to take up 100 acres OF
land each, for which each received $50
The entries were then conveyed to David
Evans, one of the indicted persons. The
California Redwood company next sent
an agent to Scotland to form syndicate
and sell the lands. The syndicate paid The
company $50 an acre for the land.
More than three months have been de
: voted by the government agent to this
case, and testimony has been secured
2 from over l00persons who accepted brides
The government will institute suits to SCI
aside all entries and patents already ISSUED
to these persons 1t would be well if SINH
} lar rascalities in other parts of the Yves
5 could be similarly dealt with.