The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-04-25

monopoly. That. of course. is to be
avoided But If you put the lands up for
s<iie II auction. as has been rec
Oirilenoed, thar result is as certain to
IviloW as the policy is embarked upon.
II you undertake TO lease the lands. il
WI De under the administration or di-
/ rectlon OF some executive officer of the
lnolan bureau. who are often. too Of
i zen, rear. under the influence of ag-
Sresated wealth. who send here their
agents 10 make favorable terms by
Nnlch 10 gain control of vast and val
uaole interests If you throw open the
lands IN accordance with the pOlicv
which has thus far prevailed in mis-
country, letting every citizen of the
united States have free entry upon
lands 10 a limited extent a small
tract and acquiring il by location, by
recording, by actual possession, and by
the expenditure of money in developing
the resources, then there Will be very
little danger. the least possible danger.
that any one institution or monopoly
Will acquire the control of all those
lands. which are expensive and valua-
BILE
Under the usual operation of the min
eral laws. as they have been practically
carried out in the west. which policy
is to be followed in this measure. no
one corporation can ever succeed in
gaining control Of all the minerals. If
man should go uDon this tract OF
lp.OOO acres, he would not know whether
he was standing upon asphalt or what
not It is invisible. Whether it DOS
seSses any value or great value he does
not know. until he has delved into the
depths of the earth. When the people
go there, they travel hundreds Of miles
through a desert and suffer great hard
ships. When they have marked off their
little tract Of land and made a record
Of a
they have anything. 1t is a mere mat
ter of speculation. Talk about putting
up the land at auction and selling it,
Before it could be done the government
would have TO spend thousands and
thousands of dollars in developing il.
in order to ascertain just what is
there and that the land might be ex-
posed to sale so as to bring the high
est possible price. There is no man who
would buy a tract of that land and pay
any considerable amount for il. The
government would realize nothing.
Under this bill it is proposed that
only one claim, 20 acres (there are
about 5000. 600 acres, l believe. upon
this reservation, shall be allowed to
any one man. He can go there. but he
can only take one claim. When a man
has taken q claim. marked it out. Ge-
veioped it, and proved to himself that
he has a good thing. he is not going to
give IL away 10 any corporation or TO
any other individual There will be
hundreds, five hundred of such claims
The moment any corporation under
takes to buy them up and get a mon
opOly, that moment the price viii rise
Thus you will have competition, and
the people of the United States. if this
measure is passed. viii ultimately re-
ceive the benefit of it, as has been SO
well pointed out.
/ have correspondence here which
might throw some light on this ques-
ton. 1t is said that people may go
there and that people have gone there
and located claims when the land is
not subject to location. That is true
But they have had their work and
their pains for nothing if the lands are
not open subject TO entry. If this leg
islation takes effect, 1t will be by pub
lie statute, and every person Will have
notice of it. There will be nothing
secret about it. and every one viii have
a chance. If the lands are opened IN
der the direction of the secretary OF
the interior, or by some other executive
or administrative officer. in collision
with some person whom it is desired
to favor. the ordinary citizen oc. the
United States viii not get the benefit,
but some powerful and influential mon
opoly will.
I sincerely hope that the senate. out
of respect for its own action in 1894. will
not hesitate to enact this measure and
TO enact such other measures as viii
give effect to its solemnly declared viii
upon this subject