The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1897-12-19
FACTS ABOUT MOUNTAINS SCHOOL LANDS

Written for the Christmas Standard
%NH HE question of the control and
disposition Of the school and
other lands belonging to the
state of Montana is of such vi
tai interest to the people of
this state that / trust / may be par
doned for addressing the readers of the
Standard briefly on the present status
of these lands, and on the work of the
state land department during the fiscal
year just closed. Sections Is and Sc of
each township, or one-eighteenth of the
entire area of the state, has been grant
ed by the general government to the
state for the benefit and support of our
common schools. When the more or
less valuable area of the state is finally
surveyed, the total area of the school
lands will aggregate over 5000 900
acres; nearly all of which will be avail
able and more or less valuable for ag-
ricultural and grazing purposes, and, If
properly handled will produce a splen-
did annual income for the school fund
and go far toward relieving the people
OF the state of the burden of school
taxes.
Added to the above, congress by diff
ferent grants bequeathed to the differ
ent state institutions as follows:
For public buildings Estate cap
atol pulldlnS). $1,000. ........ SISZ,U0G
Agricultural. college ............. 100000
State Normal school -............ 100000
School of Mines Observation-Disclosures. 100 900
Deaf and Dumb asylum .... $4,000
State Reform school ............. $4,000
State university ................. A. 0S0
Military camp at TT. Ellis.. GAO
Iotal ........ .............. Sb6S ~
Thus it will be seen that the state
lands alone of Montana, if in a COM
pact body, would make an area of more
than 5000 square miles or more, than
the combined area of Connecticut, Del
aware, Rhode Island and the District
of Columbia. On the whole, Montana
has not Jared so badly at the hands of
the general government: yet some of
the Western states have Jared better.
Utah, for instance, was granted Sec
tons 2, Is, % and Sc in each township
for common school purposes, and in
addition was granted 1,539, 900 acres for
other state institutions and purposes;
more than twice as much land proper
tionate to the area as was granted to
Montana. Area, however, is not cor
rect criterion Of the value of a land
grant; and it Will be my purpose in this
article to deal with the question of the
present and future value of our state
lands, as we'll as to call attention to
some mistakes that appear TO have been
made in the method of selecting and
handling them in the past: mistakes
that are largely chargeable to the omis-
sions of past legislative assemblies. The
Second legislative assembly, which
convened in January. 1891, failed to rec
ognize the needs of the landed interests
of the state.
The settlement of the choice lands Of
the state had advanced so far at that
date that the legislature should have
authorized and provided for the send
ing into the field five or six competent
men in the early spring Of 1891, and
these men should have selected with
all possible care and dispatch at least
the -reat bulk of the 1000 acres
granted The state Institutions by act
81 congress OF Feb. -. 1889 The state
university grant was rf1a,de'F1 1871, and
had been nearly all selected in 1852.
Had these lands been all selected in