Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1888-10-06
CLEvELAND's vErOES.

He says Kansas Has all the Public Land!
on Which She Can Lay Legal Claim.
WASHINGTON, September 24-The presi.
dent to-day vetoed house bill No. $40, pro.
viGing for the disposal of the Fort Wallace
Kansas, military reservation. The bill per.
mits the Union Pacific railroad company to
purchase within limited timo certain
part of the military reservation which is
particularly described at the rate of $50 pei
acre. The president says that he is in
formed that this privilege, nigh!
by reason of faulty description of the
lands, enable the railroad to purchase al
the price named property in which private
parties have interests acquired under our
laws. It is evident, he says, that the desorip-
ton of which the railroad company is
allowed the option of purchasing, should be
exact for the interest of all concerned.
Section four, of the bill, grants a certain
portion of the military reservation, hereto
fore set apart by the military Authority, as q
cemetery to the city of Wallace, for GENE
terry purposes. The president said that in
his opinion there should be a provision
that nobody, heretofore interested in this
ground, should be disturbed and that when
the same is no longer used as a cemetery it
should revert to the government. The
president also sent in the following veto
message:
To the House of Representatives.
am unable to give my assent to a joint
house resolution No. Ia, and entitled Joint
house resolution to authorize the secretary
of the interior to certify lands to the state
of Kansas, for the benefit of agriculture and
the mechanic arts" and I Therefore return
tine same with statement of my objections
thereto. By an act of congress passed July
9. 1862, certain public lands were granted to
such of the several states as should provide
colleges for the benefit of agriculture and
the mechanic arts. Under the terms of this
act the state Of Kansas was entitled to &c.
GOO acres of land, subject, however, to the
provision of said statute, which declared
that when lands which had been raised to
double the minimum price in consequence
of railroad grants, should be selected by
state, such lands should be COM
puted at the maximum price
and the number of acres proper
tionately diminished. Of the lands selected
by the state of Kansas, and which have been
certified, were in certain limits of a railroad
grant, and had therefore been raised to the
DOODLE minimum in price, 80 that the num-
Der of acres menti oned and thus situated
in filling the grant to which the state of Kan
sas was entitled. 1t ia now claimed that after
the selection of these lands the route of said
railroads were abandoned and another one
selected, and in consequence thereof such
lands included within its first location, were
reduced to the minimum price and restored
to public market at that rate. It is supposed
upon these allegations that justice and equity
required that an additional grant
should now be made to the state of
Kansas from tho public land, equal to
the number of acres selected within
the limits OF the first railroad location.
But an examination discloses that the joint
res luton predicted under an entire mis-
understanding of the facts. The lands
heretofore described by tbs state of Kansas
and charged at double that amount because
their price had been raised
to the double minimum in
consequence of their being within rail-
road location, have all except 800 acres re-
NAMED either in the new or old railroad 10
cation up to the present time, and if now
vacant would be held BY the government at
the double minimum price. 1t seems clear
to me that the state Of Kansas has been
granted all the public lands to which it can
lay any legal or equitable claim under the
law of 1862.
[Signed. GEovER CLEVELAND.
September "a, 1883,