The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-08-23
FRIDAY, AUGUST 90, 1901.
ONE cAusE OF EVIL.

The discussion anent the desert Ian
law, which was originally begun b
Senator Gibson and which since the,
has occupied the editorial columns O
a number of the state
has resulted in bringing out abou
the most sensible suggestion yet OF
fered in connection with the subiec
OF legislation concerning the publ
lands To the Great Falls Tribune be
longs the honor of being the autho,
OF the suggestion. The Tribune yer,
correctly says that the desert land i.
not the only force that is working t.
the detriment of Montana by allowins
all the reclaimable land to be taker
up by men who have no intention O.
retaining it. An agency almos,
equally dangerous, it says. is the
issuance of scrip by the general gov
eminent under which great quantities
OF land are being usurped from the
home builders by the big companies
whose officers and stockholders re.
side in the eastern states, and who
have no interest in Montana further
than the securing of dividends by
means of her lands.
To those at all familiar with the
operations of the scrip law. and the
manner of it's application by large
companies and wealthy individuals the
argument of the Tribune appeals with
particular force. When the govern
ment decided upon the present
system of forest reserves it was
found that large areas of
lands upon which settlers had
filed were embraced within the lin
its of many of the reservations. To
permit ownership of lands within the
reserves would have been impossible.
n in order to obtain title to the
lands so owned and to reimburse the
owners the government adopted the
system of issuing scrip known as for
est reserve lieu scrip. This scrip could
be applied to any public land not
filed upon at the time and entitled
the holder to the same number of
acres that he had surrendered to the
government. The intention of the gov.
eminent was two-fold-to recompense
those whose land had reverted to the
government and to secure occupationl
and settlement of undeveloped areas.
Instead of using the scrip themselves.
many of those to whom it was issued
concluded not to exercise their rights
and instead of taking up other land
sold he scrip to spectators. The
latter had agents in all of the western
states, notably in Montana. where un-
occupied public lands still could be
a in large tracts. The agents sold
the scrip to companies and rich indi-
Vlduals and the latter made The fill
lngs and are now holding the lands.
Because of the immense quantities of
the scrip thav held the new owners
were enabled to make filings on what
is known as the "shoestring'a plan:
that is instead of filing on solid blocks
they selected long, narrow strips of
land along the shores of creeks and
other water courses and we're thus
put in control of all land further awav.
for inaccessibility to water renders
the remaining land practically value
less to intending settlers. The scheme
was simple. By obtaining title to those
long, narrow strips the owners virtual
ly came into control of areas many
times larger than those to which they
hold title.
AS the mischief seems to have been
wrought it is doubtful whether, as
the Tribune suggests, modification of
the law compelling locations by scrip
to be in solid bodies would prove
an efficient remedy. About all the
reserve lieu scrip has been used
acquiring title to other lands. AS
preventive against future use of
other kinds of scrip in the manner
of it might be well to en-
act some such law as the Tribune sug-
gests, but as far as affording any re-
lief from existing conditions is con-
eerned it is too late now and the peo-
Die will probably have to put up with
hem.