The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1903-10-09
T. AND S. LAW.
People of Duluth and ST. Louis
County Oppose Repeal of Same.
(BY w. H. sMALLwooDJ

Duluth and vicinity. Most OF the land
Legislation of the last thirty years has
been enacted without much previous
discussion by the people or the press.
This may fairly be attributed to the
fact that considerable portion of the
/ laws enacted during that time were
conceived in the fertile brain of well
paid and skillful corporation counsel,
as in the case of this pending PROPOSE
tionL under the plea that such legisla-
tion was for the purpose of protecting
the public domain ard preserving it
for the dear people. This has always
been the favorite slogan of the big
Hand grabbing corporations.
The move for the repeal of the tim
Der and stone law and the communal
ton clause of the homestead law was
started during the last session of con-
gress and many hundreds of citizens
of Duluth and vicinity signed and
sent to congress about a year ago a
strong protest against this proposed
legislation: yet delegation accredit-
ed to Duluth has recently gone on re-
cord in an interstates convention as
favoring the repeal Of these useful
laws which of all Others, were passed
and have been enforced for the benefit
of the poor individual IS against land
grabbing corporationsand scrip SELL
ing combinations.
If the desert land act, timber and
stone act commutatio1 clause of the
homestead act are all repealed there
will remain only two ways of getting
title in public lands.
l. First and easiest will be to scrip
it.
2. The second and hardest way will
be to live on it for five years under the
homestead law.
How many men without any re-
sources except their daily wages, can
90 ten miles from any town or base of
supplies, and make continuous resi-
dence on homestead under the pre-
sent construction of the homestead
law?
This question is asked because. ac-
cerding to your Yankee sagiG- The cas-
| lest way to answer question: is by
asking another.
This appears to have been the me.
thod adopted by Col. Graves in answer
ing the opinion of Receiver Smith of
the United States land office, who was
recently interviewed by the News
Tribune.
Here is the question:
81 wish we could ascertain how
many of the tracts of land entered in
the Duluth land Office under the
timber and stone act" are now oc-
cupied and owned by the poor and
honest farmer Can anyone tell US,
or will everybody laugh at the inno-
cence which asks such question:"
No one will laugh at this question
because it is easily answered. The
timber and stone law does not allow
the entry of lands chiefly valuable for
farming purposes.
1t is only land which is unfit for
farming on account of it's timber or
stone which can be entered under the
timber and stone laws. Very natural
ly these lands are not occupied by the
poor and honest farmer; but there are
cases of record where attempts have
been made to enter under the timber
law, for 81 80 per acre, land chiefly
valuable for farming and worth from
ten to twenty dollars per acre; and but
for the very efficient and discriminat-
ing administration of the laws by our
local land officers, the scheme might
have succeeded.
The truth is that under the home
stead laws, and the old presumption
laws, the large majority of the claims
approved for final entry have not be-
come permanent homes for many years
after patent. This is the history Of
the settlement of all the country west
of the Allegheny mountains.
The Cry of fraud is not a just ground
for the repeal of the timber and stone
law, or for any other law. We might
just as we'll abolish our great postal
system and all the mails to be carried
by private conveyance because there
are found to be frauds in the postal
department. So far as the land depart
ment is concerned the fraudulent en-
tries are only a small portion of the
whole, and the greatest of these have
been committed by corporations and
not by individuals.
There is not room here to discuss all
the phases of the land question; but |
will venture this general propositions:
That the trouble is not so much in any
radical change in land laws themselves
as in their administration. The local
officers were in former years clothed
with almost absolute authority in ad-
mi ta nj In, Cna0i al or