The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-07-01

LOT the eSLADllsQm6uC.5 OI, civil
government and the development of the
islands. This act, among other things" pro-
vides for the survey, settlement and entry
Of the public lands and the opening ana de-
velOpment of the mines and forests. e There
are in round numbers 72000, 600 acres Of land
in, the islands, most Of it rich and arables
with an abundance OF. timber. OF this amount
67,Q00000 acres are public lands and only
100000 are, private property, mostly church
and friar land, farmed by natives, as labor
ers, or as tenants, at low wages or high and
exorbitant rents. This system Of church and
friar ownership and Farming Is. and has beer
most burdensome and odious to the nativess
and was one of their greatest sources of
complaint against the Spaniards. - e :. 49,,
Besides, under Spanish rule, few, natives
had secured titles to the lands they occupied:
Most of them were mere naked squatters:
With view of relieving the people OF the
burdens of friar and church lands the act
referred to makes provision for. securing by
purchase or condemnation these lands and
the disposal of them in forty-acre farms at
cost price to the natives who occupy them:
The act further provides that the natives
may secure from the public lands, without
cost, title in fee, to the extent of forty acres
in each, case, of the lands they occupied and
titled before we became. possessed Of the
country, and forty acres Of that son, il that
climate and whit. their productions make q
good and ample: farm. In, this way every
family ,can secure a home of its own -
This. free distribution Of land, in fee, among
the, natiYes-a thing unknown under Spanish
law=wil do more than anything else to make
the mass of the people happy, contented and
Abiding. The sense of ownership begets
a. love of peace and a taste for law and or
der. With land ownership, a good system al
public schools and improved means Of COM
munication,: the people will be in a position
to become prosperous and fitted for local self
government. :.ry - .,......-:.>.:..%>, ::
Such, in brief outline, -is what we have
done, and in the irnnaedia future aim. to DO
for. the: people who came to US as legacy
from spain. :s: -: =: :.-,.''. -. :%..:
ILL., The Democratic: Appositton.s: -.
In our efforts to pacify, to ciyilize and tt
upEft them, and especially in our recent
efforts of legislation in their behalf, we have
as Eou*aH know. encountered the bitter, pro
longed and most unreasonable opposition o.
the Democratic party in congress,
They: would: have us lay down our task 81
Justice andcd duty; land would have us. abandon
the islands: and their people to "a hard and
hopeless fate, while. they are still helpless
and in a state of economic and political child.
hood. Those islands. which some Of the dem
ocracy : by their votes for both treaty anc
compensation, helped us in securing, those
lSlduuS WHICH Oui ohU ifoAOto oS ct"A'
and: navy: have occupied and been engaged in
packying for the last three years, now that
the =: hard drudgery:;: has been done, AND :!
peace with law and order has been restored
and the people are about to be, regenerateo
and born to- a. new and retter- lHe-now, when
all this great and necessary preliminary work
has been: done, they preach, the gospel OF scut-
tie and abandonment louder and fercer than
ever, thus bellttling as far as they can the
great results that have been accomplished
and declaring 1t ali fruitless and a; Failure; as
they declared the war for the preservation OF
the: union.a failure in 1864 l.: ~ =.
after: acquiring: the islands by as Vatld ano
inst a. method as we ever acquired any OF OUT
territorial acquisitions, after pouring out .oui
blood and = our treasure for them without
stint, voluntarily and With well-ne g &c. one
accord, we are to treat then: as STRANDED
wreck, as though we ourselves had beer
wrecked in them. and are to. cast them sdrif'
as an abandoned derelict at sea. This zig thu
latest gospe. of the militant: democracy :: :.