The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-07-03

HOW LAWS IRE ABUSE.
Senator Gibson Vigorously States Con-
dition Existing and Points Dan
ger That Threatens.

The following article by Senator
Paris Gibson, published in the June
Homemaker, has been much COM
mented upon by the leading newspa-
pers of the country. Because of the
position, and standing of the author
it has, perhaps, attracted mor atten-
ton than any other article ever writ
ten on the same subject:
"To those who believe that our pub
lie lands should be held securely for
citizens of the United States who will
make homes upon them, our present
land acts would seem to be a travesty
upon justice and fair dealing. No
man, especially no man familiar with
western conditions, can carefully ex-
anime these acts without recognizing
in each and every n the cunningly
prepared provisions of the land law
yer working in the interest of land
proprietors. The homestead act, un-
der which the settler car go upon
100 acres of land and acquire title
to it by occupation and improvement
for five years, was MOI given to the
country as it was originally intended,
but was accompanied by a commuta-
ton provision which gave the specu-
lator and the large land operator an
opportunity to avail themselves of
benefits designed only for bona 6de
settlers. Nor were those who were
the special beneficiaries of the COM
mutation privileges of the homestead
act entirely satisfied with this specu-
lative clause, as there were many per-
sons who were willing to take up and
commute homestead claims in the in
terest of others, provided they could
still retain the right, in some way,
to obtain a homestead for themselves.
This difficulty of the spectators was
overcome by securing the passage OF
an act that enabled the man who had
committed his homestead by paying
SLIPS an acre at the end of IA months,
to file upon another homestead, which
Of course he could not commute. In
short, it gave the citizen an oppor-
tunity to take up n claim for the
SPECTATOR and another for himself.
1t is strange indeed that congress
should have permitted a bill SO unjust
as this to become a law, and still more
strange that the interior department
should have endorsed such a measure.
AS the law now stands, it simply
amounts to this: That a homesteader,
who has made an agreement to sell
his land at the end of IA months, or
who wishes to acquire 800 acres for
his own benefit, can pay $1.25 to the
government and receive title to his
16O-acre tract, after which he can i'm.
mediately locate another homestead;
while the genuine homesteader, the
man who has in good faith lived upon
his land and cultivated it five years
in full compliance with the spirit OF
the law, can not make a second loca'
ton.
"But, over and above these shreWd'
ly framed provisions for obtaining
land in large bodies, by spectators,
under the Communication provisions oil
the homestead law, the desert land
act is by all odds the most skillfully
devised measure ever prepared by
able lawyers for obtaining large bod
les of government land, and thus sue
cessfully retarding settlement. While
the provisions of this act were care
fully prepared, and the interests O.
the nation as land owner apparently
properly safeguarded, it is a fact
nevertheless, that the act as a whole
is being violated in the most oper
and high-handed manner, possibly il
an even more fragrant manne thar
was originally intended. Under thi'
law Glands which produce NATIVE
grasses sufficient in quantity, if un
fed by grazing animals, to make al
ordinary crop of hay in usual seasons
are not desert lands" Notwithstand
ing that this clause is plain and care
fully worded, it is a fact that, in Nor
tana at least, thousands upon thou
sands of acres of land have bee,
proved up under the desert land &C
that will not only produce large crop
of hay without irrigation, but are S
situated with relation to the mour
tains that they seldom fail to yiel
from 20 to 80 bushels of wheat t
the acre without irrigation. The benc
lands which lie under the shadow @