The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-02-27
OLD LAND RINGS.
win President Harrison Play Into Theii
Hands?

n. I. lines
Since the election Mr. Harrison has been
urged by many territorial politicians to remove,
at the beginning of his term, certain persons
now holding federal offices in the territories
and appoint residents of the territories in their
places. II is the men sent to the territories to
enforce the land laws and carry out an honest
land policy, who are, above all Others, obnox-
ious 70 the gentlemen who have appeared in
indianapolis, and the most persistent OF these
political prilgrims those who come from
New Mexico territory that for years has been
a land jobbers' paradise. The chief offender
in New Mexico is Surveyor-Gen. Julian, who
is accused of having disturbed land titles"
This surveyor-general is described by his op-
ponents as "a mOnOmaniac" on the subject of
the land laws. HE is honest enough about IL"
one of them saws but land titles are his hobby
and he has given the territory bad name. Mr..
Julian may not fill the New Mexican poll
ticians' measure of a perfect man, but the his
tory of his work in the territory, far
can learn from the official reports, shows that
he has labOred diligently to reclaim public
land that had been stolen. The titles" he has
endeavored to disturb were fraudulent ones.
III the local courts have not sustained the
prosecutions based upon reports of agents of
the land Office in New Mexico, IL does not fol-
low that the evidence insufficient. The
annual reports contain accounts of similar pro-
ceedings that were unsuccessful, in spite of
ample proof, because the jurors, as they frankly
admitted, did not propose now to punish men
for frauds like those which had been commit
ted for twenty years with impunity.
No other territory has been cursed with
land jobbers. The record is not confined TO
the reports published by officers of the pres
ent administration. Commissioner Sparks
took up the work that his republican prede-
, cessor had begun, and his reports were scarce
ly more severe than Commissioner MeFar-
lands. The opportunities for fraud were
greater in New Mexico than in other terrific
ries because old Spanish grants could be ma
nipulated there. Titles to such grants could
be manufactured, and the area of a grant that
really had some legal foundation could be ex-
panded wonderfully by fraud. At the same
time the common territorial industry of taking
large tracts of public land by means of fraudu-
lent prescriptions and subOrnStion of perjury
could be carried on under very favorable con-
ditions by those who did not care to take up
the business of manufacturing and expanding
grants.
Great estates were made on the public lands
One may be recalled that was not founded on
a grant, but still was almost as large as Con-
nectcut. Politicians who had accumulated
large fortunes by developing the country" on
Brady's plan, through the agency of star-route
contracts, sought refuge, enjoyment and profit
the ring have forsaken the territory with their
gains, to use their experience and capital sue
cessfully in other industries, but the change of
administration four years ago found a majority
of the original spectators still at work in the
old field. The enforcement of g new land policy
has since caused them great Inconvenience. One
of the disturbed settlers" once a senator of
the United States, has been forced to take
down fifty miles of fence with which he had