The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-04-16

are commenced in good faith by persons
who actually intend to settle upon and
improve the land. but are made by persons
who seek to secure for the ultimate BEN
eft of some lumber firm the pine timber
which grows upon the land.
The officials of the district land offices
have almost invariably decided these con-
tests against the state, except in few
recent cases which have been fought by
direction of the state auditor and in
which, at great expense and trouble to the
state, its lawful claims were sustained.
1t is distinctly unfair to the state of
Minnesota that it should be forced into
costly litigation to sustain the accuracy
of the government SURVEYOR that is
what such contests amount to, in fact.
These swamp lands were granted to the
state, freely and without cost Such was
the intention of congress, and the state,
being offered the choice of two alterna-
tives as to the method of selecting and
determining which of the public lands in
the plat and field notes of the govern
ment survey as conclusive evidence of
the character of the lands. In this cleo
ton the general land office, the secretary
of the interior and-it is understood-con-
gress itself have acquiesced, and the state
has been debarred from questioning the
accuracy of such plat and field notes as
to the character of lands shown thereby
to be non-swampy. 1t was therefore in
cumbent for the general land Office, in
equity, to uphold its own plat and field
notes as to character of lands shown
thereby to be swampy, but this has not
been done, and the state has lost certain
ly over LOCO, 600 acres by reason of the fail
ure of the general land Office and the Sec
rotary of the interior to maintain the
agreement with the state as to the basis
for determining the swampy or nom
swampy character of the pubic lands.
The state of Iowa has had similar eX
perience to the state of Minnesota in this
swamp land matter. In 1852 and 1855 Iowa
within It's boundaries, and, as is the case
in Minnesota, it lost large quantities Of
such lands by the general land office per-
hitting homestead and other entries to
Iowa has not submitted tamely to the
arbitrary rulings of the Washington Of
ficials. 1t made and presented claim, and
successfully maintained the same, that
all the swamp lands were owned by the
state, and the title thereto, of which the
state could not be rightfully deprived, be-
of the date Of the grant made by con-
gress. AS it was not possible for the
United States to indemnify the state for
it's losses of swamp lands by giving it
other lands in lieu therefor it has been
given and is now receiving large amounts
of money from the United States govern
ment as cash indemnity.
This question of Minnesota's losses
of swamp lands is veil worthy the best
attention of the state officials having such
matters in charge. The state should
press, first, for the maintenance of the
plat and field notes of the government
survey, as conclusive evidence of the char
acter of the land in order to cut off the
perennial crop of contests Second; for
the more speedy adjustment of the states
claims for swamp land and the prompt
patenting of the same Immediately after
the completion and acceptance of the gov
eminent survey. And third, the state
should prepare and press it's claim for
indemnity for all the swamp lands of
which it has been deprived.
All the swamp lands the state now re-
ceives are under the statutes set apart
inviolably for the support of the public
schools and the state institutions, and
if these lands are conserved and admin
istered as. carefully as have been the
state school lands, it will not be long be-
fore the taxpayers of Minnesota will be
relieved almost entirely Of contributing to
the support of state schools and institu-
lions.