The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-09-11
THE LAND LAWS.

The dispatch from Washington few
days ago giving a synopsis of the provi
sions of the sundry civil appropriation bill
sufficiently explicit. A copy of the act,
the bill having been approved by the
President on August 80, has been received,
and from it we learn that the appropriation
for topographic surveys is $685., 900, one
half of which sum is required to be ex-
pended west of the hundredth me-
ridian. That portion of the act of 1883
withdrawing public lands from entry, oc-
cupation ard settlement. is repealed, and
entries made and claims initiated in good
faith shall be recognized and may be
perfected, except that reservoir
sites heretofore located shall re-
main segregated and reserved from
entry or settlement until otherwise
provided by law. One excellent provision
of the law is that no person who shall here
after enter upon any of the public lands
with view to occupation, entry or settle
ment under any of the land laws shall be
permitted to acquire title to more than 800
acres in the aggregate. Of course this does
tofore made. 1t also provides that in all
| patents for lands hereafter taken up west
of the one hundredth meridian it shall be
expressed that there is reserved from the
! lands right of way thereon for bitches or
canals constructed by authority of the
| United States.
1t was a great wrong to withdraw the
public lands from entry and occupation, and
the present act will correct that wrong, as
it will also lessen another bill. We
refer to the requirement by in
dividuals. and companies of large
tracts of the public lands, under the
operation of the various land laws, permit
ting homestead, pre- emption, timber cul-
.ure and desert entries. The laws were so
generous and their construction so liberal,
that the title to millions of acres of the
public lands which should have been re-
served for bona fide citizen home seekers,
has been acquired by men who do not even
know the boundaries of their possessions
Cowboys drawing wages have pre- empted
and homesteaded land for their employers
and conveyed the title as soon as it was Sc
cured. Splendid meadow, producing abund-
ant crops of wild hay, has been made to do
service as desert land, and been en-
tered by hired men in vast contigu-
Gus tracts. A few burrows run through
a field, and few saplings planted, no
other attentionubeing given to them, have
been made to satisfy the law in regard to
timber culture claims. The result is that
while the choice public land has about all
been taken, comparatively few bona fide
settlers are found among the owners. All
of the land laws save the homestead act
should be repealed, and that act should be
enforced with grea ter rigor. A few years
more and the public domain will be limited
to the mountain sides and the irreclaimable
swamps, while the hundreds of thou
sands of worthy citizens for whom
that domain should have been held
will still be without homes and
working for the land barons
who have grown rich through fraud and
the operation of the unwisely generous
land laws which appear to have been en-
acted with the view to getting rid of the
nations territory as fast as possible.
| In connection with the removal of the re-
strictions upon tie legitimate entry and
settlement of the public land it is to be
hoped that further reform will be in
stituted and that patents for land regu-
larly pre-empted or homestead led years
ago will be issued by government. There
are many such which have been withheld
since the days Of the crank SPARKS, and it
is high time that :hey were sent to their
owners to settle the question of titles