The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-10-17
ASSAULT UPON AGRICULTURAL
INTERESTS.


INTERESTS.
Throughout the addresses of the Presi-
dent of the Miners Convention, the
speeches made, and the resolutions
adopted, relative to the protection of min
eral lands. there runs vein OF falsity that
cannot be permitted to pass unrebuked.
The whole tenor of the proceedings and
expressions of the convention sound the
note ofassault upon agriculturists, though
the piping is declared to be against the
railroad company alone.
1t is persistently put forward and kept
to the front that the railroads have been
and are seeking to rob miners and min
eral exploiters OF their rights. when the
fact is, these mining convention people
well know that not only does the rail-
road grant except mineral lands, but the
railroad companies do not under their
grant wish to take or hold mineral lands,
that they cannot 40 So and that they can
not have the slightest interest or profit in
doing so were it possible.
Here we find the President of the con-
vention declaring that the mineral belt is
we'll defined from the San Bernardino
line to the Oregon boundary, and that
this entire sweep of country ought to be
and the burden of proof put upon those
who claim that any part of the tract is ag-
ricultural \ ct it is well known to him
that the granted lands to the railroad COM
pany represent but a small portion Of the
Eo-called mineral belt he so freely bounds;
that the grant of odd sections extends but
twenty miles each side the line OF the
Central Pacific Railway, for instance.
from Sacramento County easterly across
the Sierras; that the larger area and the
most valuable unpasentsd lands involved
lie with the California and Oregon Con-
gressional grant, which provides for in
demnity in case of loss of lands by reason
of the establishment of their mineral
character. Therefore, by no possible on
tortion Of motive can any reason be fast
sned upon the railroad companies for
wishing to possess themselves of mineral
lands as is charged.
It was announced in the convention
that the purpose Of the miners organize
ton is to prevent the railroad people
'from obtaining title to any more min
eral lands under the guise of agricultural
land" The President thereafter talked
of these lands passing into railroad
ownership through an ubiquitous sys-
tenn" But it Is well known that the
system is that of the law and the reguIa-
= tions Of the Government, and that these
simply require that to be done which has
always been done, that the mineral
character OF lands be shown in order 10
take them out or the grant and throw
them within the exception of the grants.
1t must be apparent to the fair-minded
that this is simple justice; that to adopt
any other proceed ure would be to fly in
the very face OF the grants. These assume
the lands granted to be agricultural, but
except such as are more mineral than
agricultural, the equitable. just and rea-
sonable conclusion must be reached that
he who claims benefit OF the exception
must show that the lands indicated are
not agricultural, but that the mineral
character dominates.
The simple truth is that the Miners
Association, under the guise of whacking
the railroads while playing to tue anti
railroad gallery, is assaulting in the most
direct manner high agricultural interests.
1t is not the railroad that is to be injured,
but the agricultural area. The railroad
is not 20 lose by the exception of mineral
lands, but If the exception is made the
rule and the home-seeker ID required to
prove a negative aflirmatively; it is the
agricultural interests of California that
are assaulted and injured.
In the report of one OF the committees
to the convention it is set out as some
thing grievous that the Government has
required that the true character of forty
acre subdivisions shall be established.
This keeps pace with the declaration in
one of the resolutions that the wish and