The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-06
A SIGNIFICANT REMARK.

In his talk the other day at Washington
with W. G. Ralston, Secretary of the Cali
fornia Miners Association, Judge Best,
Assistant Commissioner of the General
Land Office, declared that in his opinion
the best way to solve the problem of public
lands in the far West was to turn them over
to the States in which they were situated.
This was said in connection with the COM
plications which have arisen recently in
the matter of the Central Pacific Railroad
Company's demand for lands under its
grant, these being claimed by the company
to be agricultural and by the Miners As
ISOLATION, which represents the mining in
terests of California, to be mineral.
The whole administration by the Gov
eminent of the public lands OF the far
w est has been inadequate and very often
tinctured with fraud. No Commissioner
of the General Land Office has ever visited
this part of the country or Knows any,
thing about the problems presented by the
existence of public domain. Practically
the only Government lands now remain
ing in the country are in the far West, and
the conditions which now affect them are
wholly different from those under which
the public lands in the Eastern States
were disposed of to settlers, and hence pre-
cedent is of no value whatever in their
treatment. More than that, these condi-
lions are constantly changing by reason OF
progress in discovery of natural resources
and advancement in the methods of draw
ing wealth of various kinds from the soil.
All these conditions are understood by
the people of the States in which they ex-
ist and are. not understood in any sense
by the Federal authorities. They must
depend for their knowledge on the investi-
cations and reports of agents, who are gen.
orally sent from Washington and who at
the start are as ignorant as the Commits
sioner himself. AS consequence some OF
the most scandaious frauds that have ever
tainted the administration of Federal
affairs have grown out of public land mat
tiers in the West, particularly in California,
where the lands are so rich in one way or
another and where the interests seeking
their possession have been so powerful.
A Federal agent is generally safe from ex-
posure and punishment if he enters into
any corrupt conspiracy with private inter
ests to defraud the Government, as he can
depend on a powerful influence for his pro-
lection. The whole trouble is that he is
too far removed from the oversight of his
controlling authority and is practically
free to yield to the temptations which lure
him at every turn.
Official populations are rendered all the
easier by the absence of more than one
powerful influence in any particular
scheme. Thus, a company may be formed
for Selling large body of valuable timber
land. 1t furnishes dummies to make the
entries, and the whole scheme is put
through without much danger of prose-
cution. Until the Miners Association was
organized there was practically no check
upon the railroad company's method of
securing land under its National grant,
and it is the creation of this check that
has brought 20 general notice the great
dangers which threaten the public in
terests in this regard. In other cases i'm
mense pasturage areas have been secured
by the use of dummy claimants. The
abuses which have been practiced and
made easy under the present system of
handling the public lands have been ap-
palling.
In view of these considerations it might
be well for the Western Senators and Rep
resentatives to bring this matter to an
issue in Congress. Great public interests
are involved in the proposition, not the
least of them being irrigation.