The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1888-09-15
mo. A..


Oh l0tUoIb, moQClOu III m6O0 OA Wldt
is known as the Holman Public
Land Bill, and of the bill forfeit
ing railroad grants, and it was
stated that neither would pass both
Houses of Congress at the present
session. Subsequently the fact was
announced that bills had been
passed by the House of Represen-
tatives, and the opinion that they
would not get through the Senate
was reitered.
Mr.. Holman seems to have ar
rived at conclusion in harmony
with those opinions, and has adopt
ed q very unusual-not to say un-
wise-course with a view to secur-
ing by suspension the object he
fears will prove unattainable by
the ordinary methods of repeal
and straightforward declarations of
forfeiture.
On August % he introduced "A
Bill to suspend all laws touching
the disposal of public lands except
the homestead law, and for other
purposes" by which it is provided
that the public lands of the United
States shall be disposed of only
under and according to the pro-
visions of the homestead laws, and
that the communication clause of
those laws shall be imperative,
until the pending Legislation affect
ing such lands shall be disposed of,
or until the present session of Con-
gress shall adjourn; and that any
isolated or disconnected tracts Of
public land less than 16O acres
may be ordered sold at private or
public sale for not less than 81 Is
per acre whom in the judgment of
the Commissioner of the General
Land Office it would be proper to
do 90. That during and after tho
tendency of measures now before
Congress relative to railroad grant
forfeitures no act done by any of
the grantees shall enlarge their
right or claim to any lands covered
by the grants, nor shall this pro-
vision be construed to diminish or
waive any right of the United
States to declare a forfeiture of any
of the grants.
In brief letter like this it
would be impossible to point out
all of the errors embraced in this
proposed law. In the first place it
violates we'll established legal prin-
ciples in attempting to accomplish
by indirectioD that which has been
found impossible to do in direct
legal manner. Next it undertakes
to prevent persons who have made
homestead entries from exercising
the right to commute their entries
which is vouchsafed to them by
the laws under which the entries
have been made. It denies to the
personal land their assigns) who
for waivers of legal rights to val
liable lands have accepted scrip
from the government, the right to
locate such scrip in the manner
prescribed by law and the terms of
agreements between them and the
government It undertakes to wipe
out of existence that rule of law
laid down by tho Supreme Court
of the United States by which con-
tracts with the government are
held to run until legally revoked
by competent authority and to inn
pair the rights of citizens. Should
it be carried into effect it would
work incalculable injury to the
progressive communities of the
Northwest, and interfere with pri-
yate rights in every public land
State and Territory in the Union.
A Methodist bishop told Chair
man Brice yesterday that the Meth
odists of the country could not
reconcile themselves to the free
whiskey plank in the Chicago plat
form and would either vote for the
Prohibition or Democratic nomi-
nees. This is suggestive, taken in
connection with the change of front
of the Commercial Advertiser, tho
oldest Republican paper of this
city. The Commercial was Hugh
Hastings paper and has been a
power In conservative politics for
forty years. For the first time in
it's history it is now supporting the
Democratic party, and it is doing
it in, no milk-and-watsr fashion,
either.
HENRY N. CopP.