Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1903-11-05
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Annual Report Of the Commissioner
Of the Land Once.
UNLAWFUL ENCLOSURES OF LAND.
Thousands Of Entries. the Commissioners
says, Are Also Being Made for specu-
iativs Purposes 70 the Exclusion Of
Actual Settlers.


Actual Settlers.
washington, Nov. 1.-THE annual re-
port OF W. A. Richards, which was
made public yesterday, says that in the
past year there was o large decrease
In the number Of supposedly fraudu-
lent land entries over the preceding
year. He attributes the decrease large
ly to an order Of the secretary OF the
interior dated November IL. 1902. d.
recting the investigation Of all entries
made In the states of California, Ore
gon and Washington. Under this Or
der alone 10000 entries have been sus-
pended and there are now IL special
agents of the land Office in that field
engaged in ferreting out the fraudu-
lent entries. Commissioner Richards
also states that during the year there
were reported 125 unlawful enclosures
Of public land, covering an area OF r.
s05 800 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 num-
Der here mentioned is only q fraction
Of the enclosures maintained In viola
ton of the law, the special agents hav-
ing found 1t impossible to give atten-
lion to many others because Of the or
der for. special investigation Of the
entries under the timber and stone
act.
Complaint Is made Of the operation
Of the act Of March II, 1902, to facili'
tate entries. Referring to this law.
the commissioner says: THE privi-
Ieges gained by the act have been
greatly abused, particularly by United
states commissioners, who have often
been parties to wholesale frauds In
connection with the entries. Afh-
iavits and entry papers have been pre-
pared In the names Of fictitious mem-
bers and number of other ways have
been devised to assist parties to evade
compliance with the requirements OF
the law"
The report makes a strong plea for
larger forces Of special agents, say
ing: Complaints come to this ONCE
from every section Of the country OF
Iagrant violations of the various laws
relating to the public lands. Thou
sands Of entries are being made FOR
speculative purposes with scarcely any
attempt at compliance with the legal
requirements, vast areas are unlaw-
Iully enclosed to the exclusion OF ac-
tual settlers, and hundreds OF thou
sands of dollars worth of public tim
Der IL being taken unlawfully. To put
4 stop to these practices and so to pre-
serve the remaining public lands for
the homebuilder, q large field force Is
absolutely necessary. 1t will be re-
membered that the public domain
covers about one-half Of the entire
country. The appropriation for the
past year allowed the employment Oh
only about 50 agents and their duties
consisted in not only investigating
and reporting on alleged fraudulent
sntries. timber depredations and I'M
lawful enclosures, but in doing large
mart of the supplementary work neces-
vary to establish violations OF law dis
covered by them"
Speaking Of the forest lien land Sc
Iections, the commissioner says there
were 55O4 of them pending on the
Brst Of last July and they involved an
.pprox,mate area Of 1,263,136 acres.
He recommends a change In the law
permitting the exchange OF pending
lands within the reservation Tor I'M
patented land on the outside.
Mr.. Richards also recommends the
transfer Of the control Of the forest
reserves to the department Of agricul-
ture. There are at present 50 reserves,
covering an area Of 62,365,se5 acres.
The report continues:
at is a matter of FIRST Importance
that these reserves thus far established
should be supplemented by such addl-
tional ones as are needed to form
comprehe nsive reserve, such as VIII IN
sure full participation to the water
and timber supplies Of both the Rocky
mountains and Pacific coast regions.
As yet neither Of the two great ranges
Of these regions have suflcient chain
Of timber protecting its entire length
nor has the matter Of reserving 40