The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1888-06-14
Republican State Ticket.
Secretary of State,
DANIEL j. RYAN.
Supreme Judge,
JOSEPH P. BRADBURY.
Member OF Board OF Public Works,
WELLS s. JONES.
Member OF Congress,
JACOB J. PUGSLEY.
FALSE TO ITS PROMISES.

Tho Democratic Party and tho Public
Lands.
Senator Dolph, in q recent speech, strikes
o note that will be heard, says the st. Paul
Pioneer Press, in every corner Of the North
west during the coming campaign. II there
is one item of tho Democratic policy which
is thoroughly abominablc and stands COM
demned by almost every honest man whom
residence in the more newly selected por-
tions Of the country has given opportunities
for passing an impartial judgment, it is its
treatment of the public land question. That
party came into power with an avowcd de-
termination to restore unearned lands
grants to the public domain, and to protect
the honest settler in his rights. 1t has had
ample opportunity to redeem its pledge. II
1t were changeable only with failure, that
would be sequel Of Democratic promises
too common to excite remark. But it is re-
sponsiblo for something much worse than
that. by the course which it has taken, the
dishonest have been protected and the hon.
est prosecuted; titles fairly won have been
held back or refused, and the shystcr and
tho speculator have been given tho advan-
tage in every contest.
This is true, to large extent, in tho mat
ter Of railway land grants. II those who
have obtained control of lands that they did
not earn could have had the choice of their
own agents in Congress, they could not
have guarded their own interests more
faithfully than Democratic majority has
done. 1t was perfectly we'll known to every
body that the grants OF lands to railroads
falls naturally into three classes; there are
grants toward earning which nothing what
ever has been done, and which are abso-
lutely forfeit under the plain conditions Of
the bond; there are lands granted to COM
panies that have complied with all or essen
TALLY all Of the conditions imposed, and are
thus as clearly earned a5 the wages Of a
laborer after day of hard work; and thero
are lands claimed by companies which have
fulfilled the conditions Of their grants as far
as 1t lay In their power to do, whose main
or only fault 10 an overstopping OF the time
limit caused by circumstances beyond their
control and whose equitable rights are such
that no court in civilized country would
refuse to recognize and confirm them.
1t has been the Democratic policy to lump
these together in general forfeiture bill
The faithful and the faithless were included
in the same list, and the men who would
have voted gladly for particular act of
forfeiture, where forfeiture was just, could
do so only by including in the prescription
other claimants, the validity OF whose rights
was to him questionable. As Il consequence,
with one or two exceptions, where bills for
forfeiting the lapsed grant Of single cor
poration has been allowed to come up on its
own merits, the Democratic party leaves
the land grant question just where it was
found. The guilty have been cffectually
shielded, by making punishment of the inno-
cent n condition Of visiting upon them their
deserts.
The same line has been followed, with re-
suits infinitely more serious and unhappy,
in the treatment Of the individual settler.
A country grateful for relief from the in
tolcrable burden of SPARKS has almost for
gotten that such an individual ever cursed
tho Nation with his administration of the
General Land Office. But the North
west has not forgotten him, nor will
it recover from the effects Of his
work for many year TO come.
1t will remember him by honest settlers
oustcd from their homes, and denied the
enjoyment of what years of toll had pro-
vided; by patents declared invalid, although
every condition required by the laws had
been complied.with; by clouded titlcs, which
forbid man TO dispose Of his holding, or to
raise upon it as security the money neces-
sary to improve and develop his claim; by
the sudden and rank outgrowth of horde
of informers, who make 1t their business TO
contest every final proof, in order that, II
their objection be sustained, they may be-
come first in succession to the traits of hon
est toll, or at least levy biackmail on the oc-
cupant as tho price Of relief from their in
famous conspiracy 1t was to the benefit Of
this class of people that the policy Of Mr..
Sparks Injured. He laid it down as "a rule
of practice that every claim presented by
settler was, presumably, dishonest. He in
structed his agents to find frauds, and dis
charged them IL they did not. He estab-
hshed the practice Of refusing to allow final
proof, If any objection, however founded in
fraud, was offered, or If alS' detail of proof,
however technical and unimportant, was
missing .
The effect of this was two-fold. Not only
did il embarrass and not infrequently ruin
the settler, but it offered to tho tricky spec
ulator new occupation. Thepceforth IL be-
came far more profitable business to prey
upon the people who were trying to make
homes for themselves in the Northwest than
to take up or improve land Mr.. Sparks had
disappeared, but his works live after him.
1t is now true, in certain parts Of the North
west, that no settler can obtain undisputed
title to his land without contest with these
gentry, in which the chances are about
even as to which shall como out victor. This
is the legacy which Democratic Congress
and Democratic Administration have be-
queathed to the people Of our newer States
and Territories. They have had to bear
their grievances as best they might, and
people at distance knew but little Of their
trials and misfortunes. But it's treatment
Of the public land question will not be for.
L n. T
shall ask to be continued in the place that
A. haa dispracnd and tho nover IL ha q ahu sad