The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-11-03
AUDULENT ENTRIES
] Many Land Entries Have Been
j Suspended.
MILLION OF ACRES TAKEN
Unlawful Enclosures Cove r
Large Tracts.

Washington Nov. 1.-The annual re-
port of w. a. Richards which was made
public today said there was in the past
year large decrease in the number Of
supposedly fraudulent land entries over the
preceding year. He attributes their de-
crease to an order of the secretary Of the
interior dated November ,, 1902, directing
the ivestigation of all entries made in the
state of Washington, California and Ore
son- Under this order alone 10000 entries
have been suspended and there are now
htteen special agents Of the land office in
that field engaged in ferretng out the
fraudulent entries
Commissioner Richards also states that
during the year there were reported is
unlawful Enclosures of public land, cover
ing am area of Z,605,59e acres. Seventy nine
OF these Enclosures have been removed
and proceedings are pending to compel the
REMOVAL of the remaining number He
says however. that the total number here
mentioned is only a fraction of the in
closures maintained in violation of law,
the special agents having found it i'm
possible to give attention TO many others,
because of the order for special investi-
cation OF the entries under the timber
and stone act.
- Complaint is made of the operation of
, the act of March II, 1902, TO facilitate en-
tries. Referring to this law, the COM
missioner says: The privileges gained by
the act have been greatly abused par
ucularly by United States commissioners
who have often been parties to wholesale
frauds in connection with the entries
Affidavits and entry papers have been
prepared in the names Of fictitious memb-
ers and number of other ways have
been devised TO assist parties to evade
compliance with the requirements of the
law
Tho report makes a strong plea for
larger forces of special agents, saying:
Complaints come to this office from
every section of the country of fragrant
violations of the various laws relating to
the public lands Thousands of entries are
being made for speculative purposes with
scarcely any attempt at compliance with
the legal requirements. vast areas are I'M
lawfully incluosed to the xclusion Of act
ual settlers and hundreds of thousands
of dollar worth of public timber is being
taken Unlawfully. To put a stop 10 these
practices and SO to preserve the remain
ing public lands for the homebuilaer, n
sary. 1t viii be remembered that the
public domain covers about one-half of
the entire country. The appropriation for
the past year allowed the employment Of
only about fifty agents and their duties
consisted in not only investigating and re-
porting on alleged fraudulent entries. tim
Der depredations and unlawful Enclosures
but in doing a large of the supplementary
work 10 vic cf
taw discovered by them"
Mr.. Richards recommends the transfer
Of the control of the forest reserves to
the department. of agriculture. There are
at present fffty-three reserves covering
hn area of s., $50 acres, The report
continues:
LIT is a matter of first Importance that
these reserves thus far established should
be supplemented by such additional ones
ias are needed to form a comprehensive
t-escrve, such as via insure full participa-
f,lon to the water and tirber supplies OF
both the Rocky mountains and Pacific
coast regions. As yet neither Of the wo
great ranges of these regions have a suf-
ncient chain of timber protecting its
entire length, nor has the matter Of re-
OF reserving as many sources of water
supply as may be needle in connection
with the irrigation movement been fully
determined.
The repotr says that there Is a marked
increase in the business over 1852, the
total receipts being II, 124.423. an increase
of Sl.7S2, 7i6i This increase over 1902 is
greater. it is stated. than the total re
ceipts for the year 1929 The total area
of public gands appropriated during the
year was POI, S24, 299 acres. an increase of
1886, 764 aches over the preceding year
About half this area entered was emit rel
under the Homestead law