The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1903-04-09

OF tract or lanQ extending as far south
as the present sites of Rush City, as far
north as Virginia and Grand Rapids,
bounded on the east by the state line
and extending west beyond Mile Lacs
Lake, including almost the entire pine
belt of our state. For all these years
the company has been selling this land,
also selling pine grants to lumber COM
panies, and they have on hand today
for sale some zoe, 900 acres of land from
this grant.
The state made, this donation as an
inducement to get a line of railroad
from the Twin Cities to Duluth and
South Superior, that northern Mime
sofa might be more rapidly settled. If
that 100000 acres Of land was today
opened up for government homesteads,
I doubt If inside of q week there would
be an acre unoccupied. Or had it been
so opened up, at the time of the grant,
Northern Minnesota would be more
thoroughly settled, and instead of one
railroad, we would have dozen travers-
ing that section. Railroad companies are
not slow in building roads where there
are settlers. Thus the settlement of
our state has been retarded, while the
recipients of its favors have today one
of the best paying roads in the state.
Those of you who have been unfortu-
nate enough to speculate in stocks,
may have noticed on the bucket shop"
boards the slight fluctuations in st.
Paul & Duluth railroad stock. My
personal investigation of this fact
made me conversant with the following
facts: When any extensive improve
ments were made in bettering the road
bed or rolling stock, which would have
ordinarily reduced the current dividends
for some time to come, these disburse-
ments were met by loans from eastern
money lenders, who took as security
blanket mortgages on the land in this
grant. These mortgages were in a
sense collateral" as they were never
put on file, and were satisfied by the re-
turn Of the original mortgage unified.
These mortgages were paid by the re-
ceipts from the continual sales of said
land. So what the road is today in
equipment is largely, if not entirely,
what the land grant has made 1t. Yes,
our ancient state legislatures have
sometimes been composed of an assem-
bly, Of asses-that is, judging them by
their efforts to promote the welfare of
the state.
THE RIGHT OF EMINENT
DOMAIN.
Most franchise rights carry with
them the power Of eminent domain,
which empowers the franchise holder
to condemn any and all private or pub
lie property that it may be necessary
for him to possess in order to carry out
the purposes for which the franchise
was granted. In general, if we want
to possess certain property, our only way
of possessing it is to pay the owner his
price, no matter how unreasonably
high it may be, or how badly we need
the property. There is no way of COM
pelling him to set reasonable price
upon it, or of compelling bim to sell for
any price. But the power Of eminent
domain is serious infringement upon
this right. It gives the possessor of
this power the right to say, "You shall
sell whether you wish to or not, and if
your price, in my estimation, is un-
reasonable it shall be determined by
arbitration" And the process of such
arbitration often entails ore expense
than the property is wortf.
But, we may reason, there are two
sides to the question. Would it not be
the rule of such parties to invariably
set an unreasonable price upon their
land? And the franchise holder with
out this power of eminent domain
would, of necessity, be compelled there
by to abandon his undertaking. This
may be true in certain cases, but if an
evil must exist let it be on the side
which secures to every man an indie
/ pendent and unconditional control of
his own properly. Take, for instance,
the power of eminent domain exercised
by railroad company. Such q fran
chise should be granted only when the
country traversed by said road would
be benefited byiit. IF it is benefit to
| you to have your farm traversed by a