The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-08

bOIhbbkohulhS
 -Iniquitiea Praoticed Under Desert Land Act.
 The principal use of the homestead
 act as it stands to- day is for the fraud
 ulent requirement of cattle and sheep
 ranges and the building up of big land
 holdings by corporations of individuals
 who are protecting themselves against
 the gradual contraction of the free
 range. It seems incredible that men
 can be hired so easily to commit perju-
 ry. Each and every homesteader who
 takes up a claim with the idea of sell
 ing it to company, or who takes it up
 to accommodate his employer, who
 wants to range his sheep or cattle to
 the exclusion of others, perjures him
 self from the eime he makes the first
 application to the moment he accom-
 plishes his final roof and receives his
 patent, The fraudulent use of the
 homestead law is due to the fact that five years residence is no longer re- quired to secure a title, to the utter
 uselessness of the law to the settler in | the arid domain, and to the laxity with l Which the requirements of the law are
 administered by the land office No one 1 familiar with the west will dare assert 1 that there is any opportunity for the taking Up of legitimate homesteads to
 anywhere near the extent manifested in
 the original filings made during the past i twelve months. Thus it is that a law
 which, in it's day, has been a boon of | lnestimable value to humanity has be- | come vehicle of fraud and a demOral- 1 izing influence upon thee people of the
 newest states.
 The desert land act was passed in 1877, Since that time there have been
 36,951 original desert filings in the arid
 states, there filings covering an area of
 9,14O,517 acres of public land. Of all
 these filings but 10, ,912 have been proved
 upon and title conveyed by the govern ment to the individual, these final proofs covering 2,674, 695 acres. During each year there have been between twenty-five hundred and three thou sand desert land selections made, and between five and nine hundred final proofs accomplished. It is a conserva- tive estimate to say that fully ninety five per cent. of the final proofs made on desert lands are entirely fraudulent
 As the law now stands any citizen of the United States can take up three hundred and twenty acres of arid land, making a deposit of twenty-five cents per acre at the time of filing, and pay ing one dollar an acre more when title is secured from the government. The law requires that before securing title the settler shall prove the ownership of sufficient water to irrigate this entire | tract of land, shall prove that he has expended at least one dollar per acre each year in improving the land, and that he has actually irrigated within 1 three years from the time of filing, eve ry legal subdivision of his claim
 INCREDIBLE FRAUD.
 TO honestly carry out the require | ments imposed by this law a man must | have an upquestioned water right of | sufficient volume, and, as experience has proved, make an expenditure of at [ least ten dollars an acre to put this wa l ter upon the land in sufficient quanti- ties to raise a crop of some kind which would not otherwise have grown upon this claim.
 The manner in which many of the final proofs are made upon these des- ert claims is almost incredible. In nu- merous instances no attempt is made to water the land at the securing of wit nesses who will swear to a statement of alleged facts required by the land office before patent issues Some individuals make a practice of furnishing testimony for those who desire to prove up fraud al, To ease the conscience of others, in- stances are recorded where water has been piured upon the land from a pail so the statement can be made by the witnesses that they have seen water upon the claim.
 In we'll known and new populous val eys of many of the arid states there are hundreds of authentic cases where enough water to irrigate forty acres has been used to obtain title to thousands If acres. Each claim has been proved ID on by the use of this tiny stream, .he stream being diverted from one claim to another in succession, as de- handed by the witnesses who were to 1 swear as to the reclamation of the land t may be stated without exaggeration hat nearly all of the large landholdings ( ,r ranches of the west have been built ID by fraudulent use of the land laws, tnd notably by the fraudulent use of l he homestead and desert land acts In he first few years of the operation of he latter law each claimant was al- l owed six hundred and forty acres, and lnder this law great valleys and plains ( were absorbed en bloc by individuals l md corporations, who employed people ] o use the desert land rights all for the | 'eneft of a single establishment. The | mount of land which can be taken un- ! fer the desert land act has since been ( educed to three hundred and twenty C cres, but the same method is still be- C ng pursued in monopolzing the ranges C nd fraudulently acquiring title to the ubliC domain A prominent western enator recently said: The desert land ! ct is the most iniquitous piece of leg 1 station ever placed upon the statute ! ooks. In ninety cases out of a hun red the provisions of the law are not omplied with in securing title, In fact, l he law in tlagrantly violated, and title r ecured by the rankest perjury. How T 1ng, let me ask, can this work of aC- - uring land largely for the benefit of r and corporations continue ', efore our rich arid domain will pass e tba of cott1a,c bo,1oa '|