The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-20
VAGUE LAND SELECTIONS,
Southern Pacific Not REQUIRED
to Publish Necessary
Details.
BIG POINT FOR THE MINERS.
Secretary RaIston Complains
Strongly OF This in His
Protests.

Copies of three notices of appeal and
assignments of error, with briefs, were
served upon the Southern Pacific yester-
day by Attorney Ricketts,, chairman Of the
mineral lands committee of the California
Miners Association, the necessary papers
being sent on to Washington.
These appeals affect about 50O,0 900 acres
OF land in the Redding and Sacramento
land districts.
Seven protests are also to be entered at
various land offices involving what,
roughly estimated, may be between
100000 and 100000 acres of land. Three
will be filed at Redding, two at Marysville
and two at Visalia.
1t is impossible now to correctly specify
the exact number of acres involved ii any
protest without personal visit to the
particular land Office at which the lands
are listed. This is another defect for
which the rules of the Land Department
of July 10, 1894, are responsible. AS it is
the n newspaper official publications are
very vague.
An extract from letter from Charles n.
Fisher, editor of the Roseburg Review, to
Mr.. Ricketts, explains this in part as fol-
lows:
take the liberty to call your attention TO
one matter of very great Importance to the
miners of this town. That is the recent In
struetion of the Commissioner OF the General
Land Office to the effect that the railroad lieu
land lists are no longer TO be published In tull
by subdivisions, but by townships only. This,
as one can see at glance, makes mere faree
OF the requirement of publication in news
paper for sixty days. think 1t Will result IN
the patenting by the company OF much land
actually being worked by miners, who have no
opportunity to visit the land othces ana exam
inc the posted lists there.
Secretary William G. Ralston, In his pro-
tests against the applications of the rail-
road company for patents to the lands,
those in the Redding land district, for ex-
ample, explains this further, thus;
Afiant is informed and firmly believes that a
copy of the list of lands situated in the town
ship described in said newspaper publicat alton,
and for which patent has beep applied for as
aforesaid, by descriptive subdivisions posted in
the United States Land Office, Tor and open to
the inspection OF all persons interested and the
public generally, as in said newspaper men
toned, is not and was not accessible to ahiant
because of the great distance, to wit, two hum
dred and fifty miles between the said place OF
posting and the place OF residence OF said ati-
ant, viz: Oakland, in the county OF Alameda
and State of California; and for that reason
afiant is unable to h1rein specifically describe
said railroad selections by legal su bdivisions, to
wit, by 40-acre subdivisions; and, further, att-
ant is not able to know or determine from said
published notice, hereinbefore set out, what
particular subdivisions are or have been Sc
1ected by said corporation within said town.
ships and ranges, and therefore he cannot de-
scribe the same nor specifically state the char.
acter of each 40acre SUBDIVISION IN SAID list OF
selections contained.
Here is a sample of such a newspaper
publications:
To WHOM IT May CONCERN:
NOTICE Is HEREBY GIVEN THAT THE
~ Central PACIFIC successor TO the California and
Oregon Railroad Company has fled in this office
list of lands situated in townships described be-
low, and has applied for a patent for said lands;
that the list is open to the public for Inspection
and copy thereof by descriptive subdivisions has
been posted convenient place in this Office for
the inspection of all persons interested And the
public generally, viz: Townships Nos SO, 80 and
40 north, range west; townships 81, SO, 49, 40,
As and 46 north, range west, and townships Nos.
! 81, 43, A, 40, 46 and AZ north, range 10 west,
Mount Diablo meridian.
Within the next sixty days following the date of
this notice protests or contests against the claim Of
the railroad company TO any tract or subdivision
described in the list on the ground that the same is
poses Will be received and noted for report TO the
General Land Office at Washington, D. G.
SYLVESTER HULL. Register,
| LAFAYETTE S. BARNES, Receiver.
Chow in the world" asks Mr.. Ricketts,,
''is any one to know what particular selec-
ton the railroad has made by anything
| appearing in publication like that?
at is said that anybody can go to the
| land office and look at the list, which may
necessitate travelling over 500 miles alto
! gether and that is a great hardship to
any miner away up in the mountains who
would have to make a trip to the land
Office every time the railroad company
makes a selection, simply to ascertain if
! his land is involved or not.
.'Let US presume that the railroad COM
! pany is entitled to every odd-num bered
section in a town ship that is not mineral
land and the title to which the Government
has not already parted with to some agri-
cultural or mineral land claimant. There
are thirty-six sections in all in any one
/ township, each section being $40 acres,
| making total of % ,040 acres.
| Assuming that the railroad company
has listed half of this amount, the land COW
| cred by our seven protests amounts to
565, 653 acres. You could not tell anything
about that if you depended upon the news
paper publications. though. all the infor-
nation you get is that certain townships
| are enumerated"
The newspapers in which the publica-
tons were made were the Yreka Union,
| Shasta County Democrat, Nevada City
Transcript and Tulare County Times.
One of the Marysville lists and one of the
| Visalia lists show that the lands listed are
within the indemnity limits, and the
| Miners Association has filed additional
protests against them on the ground that
| the right to make such selections has not
! Injured 10 the railroad company by reason
of the fact that there has been no loss OF
lands in the original grants to correspond
and that the selections, therefore, could
not be made as lieu lands.