The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1896-03-02
have no warhke qualities. Moreover,
Spain is not isolated in Europe"
Institute Additional SHIFTS,

SAN FRANCISCO, March 2-Instruc-
tions have been received from Wash
ington at the office Of the United States
district attorney to institute additional
suits against the Southern and Central
Pacific Railway companies, and against
the trustees of three land mortgages to
recover for the government about 5000
acres of valuable land along the railroad
lines named.
RED LAKE RESERVATION.
The Opening May be Delayed Until
Another Season.
ST.. PAUL, MaEch "A special to the
Pioneer Press from Washington says:
There has been received at the Office Of
the secretary of the interior q request
from Governor Clough that the swamp
lands shown by the surveys on the
White Earth and Red Lake reserva-
tions, SO far as they have progressed,
be listed to the State of Minnesota
under the swamp land grant Of 1850.
The request is fortified by an elaborate
argument covering both the law and
the facts in the case.
Secretary Smith is at present at At
lanta and will not return for some days,
but the matter will be submitted to him
upon his arrival in Washington,
and it is expected that the case
will be taken up at once and
an early decision follow. This
Adds Another Complication
to the matter of opening up the agri-
d. r l.,
as the rights of the state to the swamp
lands will have to be passed upon and
definitely settled before settlers can be
allowed on the lands. 1t will also af =
feet the sale of the pine, as proposed
under the Towne bill, which has Just
been signed by the president Work
has been begun in the general land of
flee toward putting the pine on the
market, but the pine lands are affected
by the question raised by the state. as are
agricultural lands. The state will have
the right to appeal from an adverse
ruling by the secretary to the courts,
and the outcome may be that the OPEN
ing of the agricultural lands and the
sale of the pine lands may be delayed
until another season. 1t will hardly be
possible to do anything further this
year with either class of lands if the
question now raised is pressed to de-
cision by the court of last resort. Com
missioner Lamoreaux has already passed
once upon this swamp land question,
although he admits that the matter was
not examined as exhaustively as it now
will have to be upon the issue raised by
the governor.
The Former Decision
was that while the state had title to the
school lands, sections III and SO in EACH
township, under the organic act, it had
no claim to the swamp lands, upon the
theory that at the time of the passage
Of the swamp land act of 1860 the land
included within these reservations was
not part of the public domain and hence
was not affected by that grant. 1t was
held that when the Indians ceded the
remainder of the lands claimed by
them and kept the reservations
within circumscribed lines, the land
so retained was not public
land i'll any sense of the word, and
was therefore excepted from the provi-
sions Of the swamp land grant. The
contention of the state is understood to
be that the reservations were simply a
portion of the public domain set apart
for the use of the Indians, and when
the Indians ceased to use any portion of
it the state came into full possession of
Its rights as over any portion Of the
public domain The question is an in.
tricate one