The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-02-27
FREE HOMES.
BiIl Before Congress That VIII show
just Where They May BE Found.

A Bill Before Congress Ihat VIII >ho"
just Where They May BE Found.
There is to-day in the procession of
embryo laws slowly filing before the
legislators at Washington. bill which.
il II ever reaches final passage, viii
stand out as one of the most notable
features of the legislation of the cen
fury. People have occasionally hearu
of the free home bill. but they are few
indeed who know what 1t really means
Taken all in all. 1t is one or the most
interesting measures that mas YET nlaue
its bow to the public.
A free home, under the Interpretation
Of the words as used IN the Dill, means
a quarter section of land, 100 acres.
upon which a citizen of the United
States can settle, file a claim, and at
the expiration of five years prove up
his claim and a legal residence thereon.
and obtain a patent for the sand, the
only cost entalled being the regal lees
for legal formalities.
Most neople have an idea that there
is nothing really valuable IN the nature
of free home left for a citizen or the
United States. but the proposed law.
which has already received the en-
dorsement of the senate ana only
awaits the action of the house, shows
that instead of the supply of unsettled
land being exhausted, there are at pres
ent 1lS14,S74 acres OF land to which
only Uncle Sam owns title, and upon
which the Indians have no lien.
Despite the fact that these lands are
government property. they are not
free homes Every settler must pay
for them at fixed rate per acre. 1t IS
this payment that the free homestead
bill proposes to wipe out by abolishins
the trust feature of the lands, and
| making them open to free entry by
| settlers BY the trust feature is meant
l ha Ia nd held in trust IN
| the United States 10 be sold for ths
| Indians.
These two trust reservations are the
/ great Sioux of North Dakota. Soutf
| Dakota and Nebraska, and the CHIP
| pewa reservation in Northern Mime
sofa. The first was open to settlement
| as a trust reservation March ?, 1889
| and the second Jan. IA of the same
| wear These lands were divided int
three divisions, those disposed of dur
| ing the first three years after tn
opening of the reservation being valued
at si.25 per acre. For the next wv
years the land was valued at Is cent
per acre, and now any one can buy
at so cents per acre, provided ne ne
citizen of the United States.
Without knowledge of the circum
stances, it might be supposed tina
trust reservations had been bought W
but a quiet investigation has show
that this is not the case. Indeed 1t
openly stated in Washington that
party of spectators, we'll supplied wit
money have discovered what they be
lieve to be Klondike scheme-the gis
of it being the passage of such la
by congress and the immediate occupa
ton of emissaries of the spectators {
all the desirable lands thus opened
cree settlement
When one takes the maps of the II
terror department that show just Whi
of the public lands free to the settle
have been taken up, and the condition
that surround the sections remainir
unoceupied. it at once becomes eyidel
. that in these two trust reservations ar
7 aside from military lands, the on
: homes worth having open to settiemer
t Nothing valuable Is left for the HON
| steader outside of grazing land,
| Oklahoma and the same is true OF u
. old Lake Traverse reservation, and T
| Yankton and Fort Berthold reserV
L lions in the Dakotas. the Crow reserv
tion in Montana, and the Siletz reser
C alton in Oregon. From time to tlf
o these were opened to the free HON
o steaders and now what remains is
n no value.
OF the nearly 12,o0O00o acres of la