Omaha daily bee., 1896-02-29
RELIEVING THE INNOCENT PURCHASED


There is a very dusky African hidden
| away in the underbrrsh of the bill that
has just passed congress for the relief
| of innocent purchasers of farms sold by
| the land grant railroads. Ostensibly
| the object Of this bill is to extend the
| time within which suits might be
| brought by the United States govern
ment to annul forfeited land patents
and to compel parties who hold lands
| to which the land grant roads had no
| legal tile to vacate the same, so they
might be restored to the public domain
and opened to homestead entry. While
such measure might be of some adj
vantage to holders of railroad lands to
| which patents had been Improperly
issued, the parties actually relieved are
the railroads that sold the lands.
The present owners of these lands
bought them in good faith and the rail
roads are obligated to give them a clear
| title or make good their losses in case
of eviction. Their protection, however.
seems not to have been the main object
of the bill. The little joker is in the
ingenious wording of section one. This
| section expressly prohibits the govern
ment from annulling the patent TO any
| land held by bona fide purchaser. and
confirms his title, provided that no suit
shall be brought or maintained nor shall
recovery be had for lands or the value
thereof that were certified or patented
in lieu of other lands covered by q
grant which was lost or relinQuished by
the grantee in consequence of the fail
ure Of the government or its officers to
| withdraw the same from sale or entry"
To the uninitiated this proyiso may
appear as designed solely for the pro-
lection of the innocent purchaser. As
| Il matter of fact, the object and ineyi-
table outcome is to legalize the fraudu-
lent entry of public lands that had been
gobbled by land grant railroads through
the criminal negligence or connivance of
the United States land Office. This
gigantic fraud was uncovered by Land
Commissioner Sparks ten years ago.
According to Mr.. Sparks the Burlington
road alone had overdrawn on its land
grant over 100000 acres. which at the
lowest estimate are today worth no less
than 81 100000. AS a matter of equity.
the company should either have re-
stored these lands to the public domain
or made restitution to the government
at their selling price ten years ago,
which was $3.50 per acre. The govern.
ment had certainly shown sufficient
liberality when it allowed the Burling-
ton to select its lands outside of its
land grant limit, although the original
subsidy act restricted it to within
twenty miles Of its main line.
1t stands to reason that other land
grant railroads will also profit by this
act for the relief of the poor farmer.
That is the only rational explanation
OF its passage without serious opposi-
tion. The neglect of the Interior de-
partment to point out the manifest aim
of the so-called farmers relief bill is
inexcusable. A measure involving the
public interest in millions of acres Of
lands should have been closely scruti-
nized and the insertion of provisions
insisted on that would enable the gov
ernment to recover the value of lands
fraudulently appropriated by land grant
roads.