Arizona republican., 1902-12-07

by railroads and states, this area will disappear from public ownership within a comparatively short time. Millions of acres now classed as public land will in time be included in the forest re- serves. Other millions of acres are not available for settlement now, nor will they ever be, as in this acreage is in- cluded the mountainous ranges of the western states.
 It is customary to think of the public lands as being inexhaustible, but at the present rate of decrease it is a mat ter of simple arithmetic to wipe them off the map. During the year 1902 there were nearly 5000 desert land entries, involving an area of nearly 1000 900 acres. Another million acres was dis posed of to those who had filed home steads. and instead of complying with the law as to residence and cultivation decided to take advantage of the com mutation clause of that law and obtain title by paying SIPS an acre for the land.
 It seems impossible to awake con- gress or members of congress to the fact that during the past year the gov ernment disposed of over 500,000 acres of valuable timber land at $250 per acre, when in thousands of cases a single tree on each acre would yield enough lumber to pay for the entire acre of forest. For years the various secretaries of the interior have been urging the repeal of the timber and stone act, the law under which this timber is being sold. Thousands of cases have been brought to the atten- tion of the department where men have hired others to exercise their rights as citizens and take a timber claim of 160 acres. The law distinctly for bids any claimant from taking this land for the benefit of some one else, yet notorious instances are on record in the files of the department where thousands of acres of land have been secured by single firms or individuals by having their employees take up these claims and transfer them to a central authority on the payment of a merely nominal sum.
 The commissioners figures for each state and territory where public lands are being disposed of are a continuous record of land grabbing. In many states and territories where the most land has been disposed of the popula- tion has not been increased by one OCAAib GNlQenCe that the land is not being absorbed by settlers. but by those who already con- trol large areas and are extending their holdings through fear of advancing civilization.
 The record made by Oklahoma in the last few years, in fact, since the be- ginning of that territory, in 1890, should be an object lesson to those who have if within their fr, +,.,ls4 and occupancy of the public domain. A special law was enacted for Okla homa which forbade the use of any other land right than the homestead law within its boundaries. In this spe- cial law the evils of the communication clause of the homestead law were rec ognized and 1t was omitted. Five years residence and cultivation were what the government asked of every man who settled in that territory. It has been claimed that it would be a severe hardship to the settlers of the west were this rule to be generally ap- piled The best arswer-to This con tention is shown in the fact that during the past year 29. .459 people took up : ,410,0 ,090 acres of land in Oklahoma. with the understanding that they were to live up to this agreement
 Oklahoma is properly known as the
 homestead state" and it has grown 10 It's great prosperity more rapidly than any other section of the west and under the strictest land law on the statute books of the government. Serious alarm is felt throughout the west at this rapid absorption of the public lands by other than legitimate settlers. and the officials of che interior department are unanimous in their belief that the wholesale fraud now so apparent in the process of disposing of the public lands cannot be controlled or even checked until the present land laws are mark edly amended and the requirements of residence and cultivation honestly en- forced.
 The attention of congress will be called to this matter this winter but It Is curious fact that twenty-five years ago Senator Teller. then secretary of the interior. recommended the repeal of all land laws allowing the government 10 dispose of it's land except the one under which a man could secure title to 16O acres of land by living upon and i'm proving the same in all sincerity of purpose. Every succeeding secretary of the interior has practically followed his recommendations. and yet congress has not paid the slightest attention to these recommendations. except indi- rectly. In the law under which Okla homa was settled and in the new irri- gation law are embodied the reforms which have been demanded in the gen. eral land laws. and while these new laws are admirable in their limited ap- pllcation the late laws will stand and afford wide-open door for the fraud ulent acquisition of the public lands, which belong to the people of the east ern states, as we'll as to the people of the west. and In whose proper use the country as whole is concerned.-J. D. Whelpley in St. Louis Globe Democrat.
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