Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-19
GRABBING THE LAND
Wholesome Absorption Of the
Public Domain.
EXTENSION OF FENCES
EFFORTS OF THE CATTLEMEN TO
OBTAIN TERRITORY.
It is Not Believed That Remedial Leg
islation Will Be Obtained at This
Session Of Congress.

The House land committee by its rejec-
ton Of all measures proposed for the
further safeguarding of the public lands
for homebulders has transferred interest
in that direction to the Senate said a gen.
leman who has Travelled much in the west
to Star reporter. ut Is not believed now
that it will be possible to secure any amend
ments to the land laws at this session of
Congress. Some progress will be made,
however, and it is even believed by two or
three senators who are earnestly In favor
Of the same that before the first Of March
the Senate will pass bill and thus give the
matter great prestige with the Fifty-eighth
Congress, which will assemble next winter.
I'm the meantime the matter will not be
dropped. Thousands of desert claims have
been filed each year, and the acreage under
irrigation has not increased in any like
proportion. Thousands Of homesteads have
been f1led-in fact, never in the history OF
the land office have there been SO many OF
these filings, and yet the agricultural pop
ulation of the sections Of country where
these filings are made does not grow apace
as the figures would indicate.
Fraudulent Absorption Of Land.
THE land office show that the per-
centage Of fraud in the land filings made
during the past year was small. because
only those cases are brought to the atten-
ton Of the land Office which are investi-
gated by special agents, or which are con-
tested by contending claimants. These are
not the fraudulent filings which injure the
public domain, because they are made pub
lie. 1t Is the fraudulent absorption Of land
which passes unheeded that Is destroying
the great landed resources of the UnitC>
States government.
TT Is doubtful today whether there are
more than sixty million acres of arabic
public land upon which homebuilders can
establish themselves In safety and in COM
fort with and without irrigation. Last year
twenty million acres Of the public domain
passed from the hands of the government
under original filings. Those who are now
hiring people to make these filings are not
taking the worst land They are skimming
the cream each year, and it becomes mat
ter Of easy arithmetic to state the time
when there will be precious little left Of this
vast arabic area upon which the United
States must depend in the future as an out
let for social discomfort for homebuilderS,
and to relieve the pressure from increasing
population.
This has become a great national Ques-
ton and is not confined to Colorado, Wyom-
ing, or any other public land state 1t Is a
social and economic problem, and the people
who think about these things and direct
these movements are. as rule, the men in
the great educational and business centers
of the United States. These men have been
recently disinterestedly aroused to what has
been going on of late. and the public man,
the politician who fails to recognize the
length and breadth and depth of this de-
mand for the saving of the forests and the
saving Of the land for the people who will
make homes upon it is shortsighted
Extending Fence Lines.
by the simple and apparently easy eva
sion of the laws requirements few men
are extending their fence lines over these
lands of the people. While they are doing
this they are also pleading for a leasing
bill, whereby they can lease for unlim
tied term of years, at a nominal rental,
the land they cannot find people to take up
for them. They argue that if this is not
done the price of beef will continue to in
crease. That it is necessary that they should
have large amounts of land to keep up the
meat supply The argument is plausible
to those who do not know that more beef
reaches the Chicago market from the
densely populated state of Illinois than
from half dozen of the great so-called
range states.
Cattle and Settlers.
lone farmer with ten acres of irrigated
ground and hundred head Of cattle, liv-
Ing himself and his family, month in and
month out upon the land he cultivates. is
worth more to the community, worth more
to the state, worth more to the railroads,
and in fact worth more to the general
government, than the owner of the biggest
cattle ranch from British Columbia to the