The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-11-11
ALLEN DEFENDS The HOME
He Stands Up in the Senate and
Hurls Defiance at Home
DeSpOilerS.
If it is Right for the Government
to Subsidize Railroads., Steam
ship Co.'S and the Like, it is
Even More Proper That it
Should Help Its Citizens
To Get Homes.

On January IA, 1897, Compression Rec
ord second session Fifty-fourth con-
gress, page 791, the senate had under
consideration in committee of the
whole blouse Roll 1850 providing for
free homesteads or public lands IN
) Oklahoma Territory for actual and
bona fde settlers and reserving the
publicans for that purpose. Mr.. AL
len submitted the following remarks:
Mr.. Allen-What can make our instl-
buttons more secure, what can make
American society more permanent ana
more enduring, han giving every man
and every woman and child an oppor-
tunity to own and occupy a portion of
the soil that they can ~conscientlously
and truthfully say is their home? You
cannot make good citizens OF tramps.
You cannot make good and permanent
citizens Of men who have no home. Inc
h%ardships that these men and their
wives and families will undergo Incl,
lent to the settlement and development
of his semi-arid region will be a thou-
sandfold worse and more onerous than
the loss Of money the government
would sustain by giving them the op-
%portunity. What is to become of them?
Senators says they must pay. The
Senator from Connecticut, like Shylock,
is demanding the pound of flesh from
the settlers.
Mr.. President, they have not the mon-
ey to give. That is all there is to 1t.
They went into this semi-arid country
with a few hundred dollars, construct
ed sod shanties and little cabins, broke
a few acres of land, and made some
other structural improvements, invest
ing in most instances all they had ana
more thai the land itself was worth.
What is to become of the money they
have invested in these lands, in homes,
in stables, in fencing, n in breaking,
if they are to be driven from them by
the action of the government? All this
will be lost, and the thousands ana
tens Of thousands of persons VINO are
inhabiting these semi-arid homes will
be driven from them, and will be cast
as a burden upon the balance of the
nation. They must live; they must have
an opportunity to work. If they are
willing, sir, to undergo the hardships
incident to pioneer life in laying the
foundation of great communities that
are to be, is it not wise policy for US
to them to the extent of CIV
ing them the land as a foundation with
which to begin?
No, Mr.. President; if the policy of this
nation in substituting railways and
steamship companies and giving pub
lie money to improve river and harbors
is a wise policy, it is infinitely more
wise, as it is more just, to give to those
who are struggling to establish a home
an opportunity to do so without exact
ing any money from them.
On June 80, 1898, page 654S Congress
sional Record, the senate proceeded to
the consideration of the conference re-
port on the Indian appropriation bill
blouse Roll 6S96) making appropriations
for the current and contingent expenses
of the Indian department and for full
filling treaty stipulations with various
Indian tribes for the fiscal veal end
ing June 80, 1899. Senate Allen sub
mitted the following:
Mr.. President, I will pass from this
somewhat abstract question, a question
which is none the less interesting and
worthy of the study of intellectual gen.
tlemen, to the simple, proposition of re-
cession from this amendment.
- 49,, 4l;~
amendment to this bill, n I canno
understand why there should be any
hesitancy to hold the free homes
amendment to this bill. 1t seems I'M
fortunate that when we amend a bill
we have got to constantly struggle to
retain our amendments. All the hos
tility which comes to the amendments
comes from the house of representa-
tives, and our committees nave receded
and receded n receded, session after
session, until it seems to be taken as
a part of the unwritten law of con-
gress that whenever the conferees Of
the house of Representatives protest
vigorously, there, is but one thing to
do, and that is for the senate commit
tee to taxi to- cover y
:. Mr.. President, this, free-home meas
ure is right; ahd:no man can dispute it.
1t was said here a moment ago that
the title to these lands was procured
from the Indians-and I might say par
enthetically hat it is rather singular
that we procured title from the Indians
if they did not hav title to procure
and that the government sold these