Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-06-13


total issue thereof equal in amount to
the revenue of the government for that
year; for the issue of treasury notes to
replace the national bank notes surren-
dered; for the repeal of the laws author
izing the sale of United States bonds and
for the accumulation Of a gold reserve of
$100,0O0,000 and finally for the covering
of that reserve into the treasury as avail
able assets. Senator Plumb to-day re-
ported adversely from the public lands
committee a bill to protect land claimants
within railroad limits by permitting them
to purchase land from the government at
$3.50 per acre whenever it Is not held to
be within the land grant to the railroad
company. Accompanying the bill is a
letter from the commissioner of the
general land Off e, recommending that the
bill DO not passed, for the reason that
the interests of bona ide settlers are
sufficiently protected under the present
laws. Representative Oats of Alabama,
of the committee on judiciary, to-day re-
ported to the house a bill to prohibit
aliens from acquiring title to or owning
lands within the United States. An
elaborate report accompanied the bill.
In it the committee says the power of
the government to totally exclude aliens
from coming within its jurisdiction, as
has been done IN the case of the Chi
nese, no one questions. This sovereign
power certainly includes the lesser one
Of 1nErinr what rrororfU rir1te tIoxy
may exercise, after they are admitted,
alien condition. Your committee
reasonable certainty, that certain
noblemen of Europe, principally Eng
lishmen, have acquired and now own, in
land within the United States. We have
quantity of land owned by aliens, nor is
it so important, as it is generally held in
smaller bodies. This alien nonresident
ownership will, in course Of time, lead to
a system of landlordism incompatible
with the interests of the free institutions
Of the United States. The foundation of
such a system is being laid broadly in
the western states and territories. The
avarice and enterprise of European cap
i~talists, the report continues, caused them
to invest many millions in American
railroad and land bonds, covering per-
haps 100,O00,000 acres, the greater part
of which under foreclosure sales will
most likely, before many years, become
the property of these foreign bond
holders, in addition to their present
princely possessions. This aggressive
foreign capital is not confined to the
lands it has purchased, but overlapping
its boundaries has caused hundreds of
miles of the public domain to be fenced
up for the grazing Of vast herds of cattle,
and set at defiance the rights of honest
but humble settlers. The bill proposes
to place these aliens under disabilities of
civil laws as to all future attempts to ac-
quire lands in this country.
In other words the report
says the bill is a declaration against
absentee to landlordism. 1t declares all
foreign born persons who have not been
naturalized, incapable of taking title to
lands anywhere in the United States ex-
cept a lease to hold for not to exceed frye
years, and it has no retroactive, but pros
pective operation. It alsJ contains a
provision which will c.caaippel alien land
owners to cease to be such or to become
citizens Of Uuited SSates within ten
years. The bill says THAT it would pre-
! vent any more abuses like that of Mr..
Scully who resides in England, and is a
subject of the queen but owns 10000
acres in Illinois, occupied by tenants,
mostly ignorant foreigners from whom
he receives as rent 100000 yealy, and
expends it in Europe. The Scheully es.
tate of about 1000 acres, within the city
limits of Pittsburg and Allegheny,
from the rents of which Scheullys who are
subjects of the British queen draw annu.
ally 100000 is another instance of alien
landlordism in America. The tenth cen
sus shows that the United States has
$4,000 tenant farmers, the largest num-
Der possessed by any nation in the
world. The provision of homes for ou1
rapidly charging population is one Of
the great questions of the future and the
committee believes that everyland owner
in this country should owe his allegiance
to the United States. A pleasure excur-
sion party, consisting of about
eighty-ive members of the Min
nesota Editors and Publish
ers' association, many of whom
we're accompanied by ladies', or their
families and invited friends, arrived here
at 5 o'clock this evening on a specia.
train over the B. & o. Il. r. The party
will make the Ebbitt house their head.
quarters during their stay, and under es
cort of the Minnesota delegation in col
gress will visit all points Of
interest in and about Washing.
ton. To morrow evening they
will be given a reception by Secretary
and Mrs. Window, and by Senator anc
Mrs Davis. Wednesday the excursion
lists will visit Mount Vernon and Thurs
day they will be entertained at lunch by
Senator and Mrs. Washburn. The
party will leave here for home next Fri
day evening.
Fargo's Public Building.