The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-07-06
THE PUBLIC LANDS.

So much time has been consumed in
the discussion of the tariff bill, and so
much more will be taken up with talk
on the same measure, that it is almost
idle to even expect any important legis-
lation will get through Congress at the
present session. Before the Represen-
tatiyes have uttered all they have to say
for and against the bill, Washington will
ESQ hot that it will be difficult to keep a
quorum in the city, and Congress will
adjourn to save the members
lives, as well as to give the
gentlemen an opportunity to
get back home and do little campaign
work for themselves personally and fer
their respective parties. An adjourn
ment may be looked for within four
weeks, which will give little if any time
for general legislation.
1t is gratifying, however, to know
that If no good bills can be passed this
session, some are presented now and
then. This indicates that there are a
few Congressman who are thinking Of
their duty to the voters of the country
who sent them there.
An excellent bill which has
passed the House and was last week
read in the Senate and referred to the
Committee on Public Lands, is one
which proposes to secure to actual set
tiers the public lands adapted to agri-
culture, and to protect the forests on
the public domain. Notwithstanding
the efforts to preserve them during the
past three years, the public lands are
still falling into the hands of the spec
ulators aud those to whom they are
not entitled, and poor men for
whom these lands were intended
to be reserved, are being deprived of
the homes which the nation generously
undertook to convey. Wherever there
is public land which can he reclaimed
and made valuable, you will find the
rich spectators, with their desert
claims, their timber culture claims,
their gangs of hired re-emptors, and
even their paid homesteaders, quietly
and steaIthily acquiring title to soil
which in a little while will be of i'm
mense value. The public domain is
b ling seized SO rapidly that it wont be
long before the two loose and two lib
eral land laws will be imperative
statutes because there will be no land
to be disposed of under them. Worthy
settlers will have to go to the deser 8
and alkali plains, Or to the mountain
sides for the homesieads which govern
ment offers to its citizens.
The bill referred to above Classics
the public lands as agricultural, timber.
mineral, desert and reserved, and pro
vides for its disposal as such. Lands
chiefly valuabls for deposits of iron,
coal, gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, cop.
per, nickel, tin or other valuable min
eral, are classified as mineral. Govern
ment retains the coal deposits, but
permits the purchaser OF the land to
mine and dispose of the coal until
such time as Congress makes laws
for protecting the people from monop-
oily, and to secure coal to the consumers
at reasonable prices. Timber land can
not be sold, but timber, in tracts not
exceeding forty acres in extent, may be
disposed of to the highest bidder, from
time to time in the discretion of the Sec
rotary of the Interior. mineral
lands unfit for cultivation without irri-
cation, and destitute of timber, are
classified as desert, and may be entered
in tracts of 800 acres or less, by citizens
for their own use. All other lands are
classified as agricultural, and are re-
served for actual settlers under the
homestead law.
The bill seems wise one, and should
become law.
The APetita',