The morning call., 1893-10-04
SAVE POOR MEN.
They Have Earned Their
Homes.
AND SHOULD HAVE TITLE.
Bowers on the Rapacity of the
Southern Pacific.
ND SHOULD HAVE TITLE.
BAD FAITH OF THE GOVERNMENT
Has Given Patents to Land Which the
Corporation Is Now Per-
mitted to Claim.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3.-Representative
Bowers to-day arraigned the Department
of Justice for not coming to the relief of
ettlers on public lands in Southern Cali
fornia, whose homes are in danger of be-
ing taken from them by the Southern Pa
cifc Railroad. Mr.. Bowers said:
81 want to take Congress by both ears
and whisper that there are other people in
the country besides the repeaters, shoulder
strikers and tigers of New York City that
are entitled TO is consideration that there
are American citizens. who have gone
on to deserts and made them blossom
as the rose, who are being robbed
and maltreated by the Government,
while Congress gives its time and money
and legislation to politics. and that these
are entitled to its care, as well as the as
sisted pauper or criminal that landed at
Castle Garden yesterday and to-day is
Tammany voter. Last week / received
letter from Dudley. Kings County. Cal,
saying: L am ole of the unfortunate set
tiers on indemnity lands now claimed by
the Southern Pacific Company. Have
lived here since 1888; have endured
all the inconvenience of frontier
life; have8 built a good house and
made other Improvements. My patent
was issued January 4. 1892. In December.
after receiving my patent. discovered an
immense deposit of gypsum on the land,
and by analysis it proved to be the purest
gypsum on the Pacific Coast | purchased
small mill and began to work 1t. The
Southern Pacific Company sent their land
grader here last week to appraise the land.
| am in receipt of letter from the land
agent of the Southern Pacific stating that
| if l wish to purchase I can have the pref
erence, but will be required to pay cash in
| full to them. / am not able to employ
| COUNSEL
"This is only one of hundreds of sucn
cases. / will read also paragraph from
letter written by jerome Madden, land
agent of the railroad company, to one of
these settlers. Madden says: OF course
| it will occur to you that the railroad COM
pany will not consent to the illegal taking
of its lands by any one, and if the officers
-of the Government have issued patents to
you it will have the courts decide whether
| or not their action was erroneous, and the
patents belong to the company, for all these
lands are mortgaged to trustees as
security
''There is provision in the N ortgage that
the lands cannot be sold for less than they
are worth. That means that the railroad
expects to be paid for the improvements
these settlers have made. They have been
here for years. Their children have gone
barefoot in the struggle to build up homes,
yet to-day they do not know whether they
own those homes or not. though they have
patents from the United States Govern
ment This is an effort to have the Gov
ernment do justice to those settlers.
81 had resolution on this subject intro
duced and sent to the Attorney General,
and he replied that his department could
not defend these settlers titles. Yet the
Attorney-General can appear in almost
every matter. Among other things, the
| Department of Justice can be represented
in dispute about patent right. l intro
duced here bill to pay claim of $4,000
which had been passed by the Court of
| Claims, the purpose Of the appropriation
being to pay lawyers from Los Angeles
| County for defending the title of
| Indians to lands when they are
threatened with being dispossessed; :;
but il appears that white man
has no rights which this Congress is bound
to respect He is settler on public lands
and has paid money for the land which he
occupies. In California we have statute
providing that If one of our citizens sells
land twice he shall be convicted Of felony,
aud the doors of the penitentiary are open
to receive him. Yet the United States Is
acting in precisely the same manner which
is condemned as felony by the laws of
California. have now before commit
tee of this House a resolution, and ask
that 1t be reported. authorizing ana in
structng the Attorney-General to appear
| in these cases for these settlers.
II know that the rights of corporations
are sacred. l believe that two judges are
in Jail in Kansas at this time for not obey
ing the will of corporations, but never
knew Judge anywhere to suffer because
he disregarded the rights Of settler ON
| public lands. We want distinct
proclamation made on this subject.
We want it settled in the Supreme
Court of the United States what
the Government means when it issues
patents. We want to know whether the
United States Government can with i'm
punity act in the same manner as men
whom we in California punish as thieves
| ucT6 dIC Ot6I lSOu 4dlulllCS teT6SIoQ
in this question. They have gone on public
land aud built up their homes, and the
question as to whether these families shall
now be turned out of their homes without
protection from the Government is a ques-
tion of grave Importance. Many Of these
settlers have spent the best years of their
lives fighting for their country, and for
Gods sake let the Government so respect
and act that they can respect their coun-
try. that they can believe and know that
their Government is honest and wants to
do what Is right"
Mr.. Bowers said to The CALL corre-
spondent tonight that he believed the Ju-
dietary Committee would favorably report
his resolution.
TALKING STATES RIGHTS.
The House Still Worrying Over the
Federal Elections Laws.