The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-02-01
THE SCHOOL LANDS
An Effort Must be Made to Hold
Them.
sCHEMERs ARE HARD AT WORK.
All Such Cases Must be Fought to the Bittes4
End, as Public Welfare Depends
Upon 1t.

1t will be remembered that some Tins
ago certain parties took up that valuabl6
section OF school land near the penitentiary.
claiming that it was mineral, as fine bed
of brick clay had been discovered upon it,
Vi course, this meant big contest, and
the case was to have come up in the land
Office recently, but was postponed until
some time in April. The brief notices
which appeared in the papers aroused sons
interest in the matter, which has resulted
in good. One well known gentleman who
has been looking into the subject said to a.
HERALD reporter yesterday: ''Thls at
tempt on the part of few real estate
sharks to get away with school land worth
to-day at least a quarter of million, is a
more contemplate scheme than the attempB
to steal Arsenal Hill land some time ago.
winch aroused such a storm of indigna.
ton. L don't think there is anything in
THE CLAIM OF THESE LAND JUMPERS,
and the matter should be contested from
the start. The trouble is that
people don't understand the ma
ture of the case. You go and talk about
1t 10 business man and you might as well
talk Chinese to him. Now, the press
should wake the people up on that subject
and not allow these fellows to get away
with the deal simply because there is no
opposition to them"
Said another gentleman: al have visited
the section and there is no more brick clay
there than IN my back yard. II these men
expect to make brick there they will have
to take their clay out. 1t is something the
public is not familiar with, and they proba-
bly, supposed on that account that there
would not be much of a fight and thew
would get their steal through. | call it a
steal and that's what it is. few real
estate sharks have bound themselves to-
gether and the fine Italian hand of one man
who understands the matter better than
they do is engineering the scheme for them.
Now, this IS growing city. Even now We
need the benefit OF this land and how
much more will we need it in few years,
when Salt Lake has a population of 150, 600.
1t will be available before a great while
and an effort should be made to save this
quarter of million dollars to the cause Of
education.
A prominent business man said: 'Don't
talk to me about public spirit when lot OF
men can go out and steal school lands I'M
der sucn t1imsy pretext, without word
Of condemnation. A section oyer by the
lake was lost just for lack of public interest
in the contest and this may go the same
way. If The HERALD succeeds in arousing
some interest it will do a laudable thing.
Q. f.. Wantland, who is perhaps better
informed on this subject than any other
business man In the city, said: salt Lake
county has nearly forty sections of school
land, and there are 1000 acres of school
land inside the city limits. 1t
Is WORTH HALF A MILLION,
and this section by the penetentiary 10
worth $500, 600. These men will be that
much better off if they get away with it.
Still no attention is paid to it, and they are
allowed to go on. / don't know whether OF
not the matter will be contested as
it should be, but it will be an outrage if it
is not. This land is to be available when
Utah becomes state, but it is my opinion
that If an organized effort were made,
Congress would have authority to bond it
at least. and the cause of education would
have a big fund. We claim to be the edu.
cational center of the inter-mountain re-
gion, but if all this land is to be stolen, we
shall certainly lose that honor. How much
depends upon educational faciIitiesl How
much more important will this be as the
city grows! How much depends upon
keeping up the work so well begun2 With
the funds which might be realized from
this section alone it would be possible TO
establish here magniicently equipped
university, which would be an honor to
the city.
1T is AN IMPORTANT MATTER
now, but it will be more important in fu.
ture. The future welfare of the city de-
ponds largely upon it's educational facili-
ties, and what will they be if we allow the
resources with which that work must
be carried on to be stripped from US nowa
l am surprised that there is not more in.
terest in the matter"