The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-02-20

crowds Of "rocker men, as they are
termed, by common consent worked from
day TO day within the limits of a few feet.
Meanwhile they had been arrested en-
rnasse, several hundreds OF them, by Capt.
Walkers regulars under the pretext that
they were hindering navigation and OBJ
structlng commerce. The transportation
companies are said 70 have been the COM
plafnants though the rocker men"
charge conspiracy with the intent of ex-
Guiding them from the beach diggings.
Neither the army nor transportation peo-
pie could pen or provide for the several
hundred men who had suffered arrest,
without resistance. and subsequent events
do not seem to prove that the 1000 gold
diggers on the beach were any serious
hindrance 10 commerce.
T9penty-Acye Locators.
The ''rooker men, were thus left In the
position Of citizens without title, mining
the tide lands and the edge Of the reserve
strin. They claimed nothing more than
the few feet OF ground on WHICH they
labored each day. Another class located
twenty-acre claims along the beach for
miles, from what they decided 10 be the
line Of ordinary high tide across the
sixty-foot reserve and into the tundra.
Many of these locators, acting under le-
gal advice in what they had done, mined
under the existing condition throughout
the season, with the determination to car
~ their case to the national capital
In laying their base of operations the
twenty-acre men held that the fair wealth
err high tide line was the limitation Of the
tide land reserve. and that the sixty-foot
reserve amendment TO the homestead act
did not inhibit them from mining the
ground asserting mineral title 10 IL.
The interior department has already sus-
tanned them in 30 far as the aixty-foot
strip fs concerned. The other contention
as 10 the line OF ordinary high tide Is not
SO easily disposed OF. In the first place.
tie supreme court of the United States
has decided that ordinary high tide IL that
beach line whore marine land yegeta-
ton ceases. Under this decision, the line
OF ordinary high tide would be at the me-
ander Of the tundra edge and not the fair
weather high tide OF the Arctic coast.
II would be difficult to conceive a more
pcrplexing dilemma. II has been out of
the Jurisdiction of the government to de-
termine ordinary high tide lines, as such
q survey presupposes the establishment OF
a basis for titles to lands which the gov
eminent has alienated IL the government
establishes the average fair weather high
tide line Mt Nome as the mean from which
the upland shall he surveyed. the question
as 10 why tho learned decision OF the SUI
preme court was disrcgarded will lead to
litigation. The supreme court. In other
WbFub, VIII ne thiffu upon W ftNfTNt itetifs
II the line OF tundra vegetation is estab-
1ished as the ordinary high tide line. tho
supreme court win be appealed to for a
reversal on the ground that the tidal CON
dtions of the Arctic circle differ greatly
from those Of the ATTITUDES for which tide
land vegetation was devised and court de-
cisions rendered.
II Il Great Problem.
II n doubtful whether human ingenuity
can frame any law respecting the disposal
of titles to land AUDITING on Cape Nome
tide lands that would not have to be in
terpreted by the supreme court, while the
large mining estate at issue might be
locked against labor indefinitely. For
these reasons, the action of congress re-
specting mining on the Cape Nome beach
II awaited with the profoundest concern
by every one Interested in the new gold
fields, and especially by sharpers in lido
land lore, Some remedy for the situa-
ton must inhere in congress. and doubt
less II win be provided as the result OF
compromises between tradition and neces-
si,y In time TO benefit the crowds who viii
start north ut the earliest moment prao-