The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-03-10
GROWING
SCARCER
SuppIy'of Public Lands Will
Soon be Exhausted.
PROGRESS OF DIMINUATlON
WheIpIy's Interesting Letter
on the Subject.
PROGRESS OF DIMlNUATlON
washington, March al. D. whelpley.

Washington, March 81 ID. Nhelpley,
writing to the New York Herald says:
IF our present system of land acts is
continued five years longer, the entire
public domain suitable for settlement will
be exhausted, and there will be no land
left for our people who desire to make
homes upon it.
During the first ninety days of the
present fiscal year 6,109, 900 acres of gov
eminent land Were filed upon. Should
this increasing ratio be maintained, be-
tween twenty-five and thirty million acres
will be taken from the public domain the
present fiscal year"
The above statements are taken from
report made this week by the Senate COM
mittee on Public Lands. This report is
the first official evidence of a declaration
of open war which has been made be-
tween those variousy concerned with the
fate Of the remaining public lands.
The issue is well defined between the big
range interests of the West, identical as
they are with those OF the Beef Trust,
and the officers Of the United States gov
eminent, who are determined that the
spirit of the law shall prevail and that
the remaining public lands shall be given
only to home builders seeking residence
thereupon.
Many years ago Uncle Sam started in
the real estate business with a landed
property amounting to nearly two billion
acres There are now left in the hands
of the government about 500000,oo0 acres
of this vast empire. Never before in the
history Of the Land Office has the absorp-
ton of this land by private interests been
90. M StnnGndQnS in the
acreage involved.
The laws as they stand today were
drawn during an era of free land when
apparently no thought had to be given
for the future. That future has come,
however, quicker than was dreamed of
BY the builders of the Homestead act Of
1862 and the laws. which have in the past
served a most benefcient purpose, are
now shown by the government records
and by the reports Of the government
agents and experts to be but great open
door for perjury, fraud and theft of every
possible description which in any way, di-
rect or indirect, can lead to the obtaining
of government land by private or corpo-
rate interests.
Instead of following the injunctibns of
Jackson Lincoln, Grant. Cleveland, Har-
rison and Roosevelt, we are making,
says the Senate Committee. "all possible
haste under our present most unfortunate
land acts to turn over to wealthy men
and corporations this rich heritage of the
people The population of the United
States. today eighty-fiye millions, will
doubtless reach one hundred and thirty
millions in the next twenty five or thirty
years. 8 IS
''Vvhere will this rapidly Increasing pop
ulation find homes upon the land If we
hermit the public domain to pass into the
possession of men seeking TO. own and
control immense landed estates?
There should be but one. act upon our
statute books under which public land
can be acquired. and that one act should
be a genuine homestead act. which inn
poses a residence of five years and con-
tinuous cultivation of the soil-an act
having no Communication provision attached
TO it,
The above are the reasons set forth by
a majority of the Senate Land Committee
for recommending the passage of what is
known in the Senate as the Quaries bill
and in the House as the Powers bill. The
two proposed measures are identical
They are the most radical land legislation
which has been proposed in forty years.
The effect of the enactment of such
measure would be to sweep out of eX-
istence the present methods OF obtaining
government land.
These are now being used to build up
great grazing ranches and land monopo-
lies throughout the western States, con-
structed by their owners in the fear and
realization that the free range is becom-
ing exhausted and the time is near athand
when the people Of the United States will
demand that every acre of public land
plav its part in the building of home
rather than as incidental pasturage for
a cattle baron's long horned steer.
In the six years ending July !, 1908, there
will have been taken from the govern
ment. under various allegedly legal forms.
about one hundred million acres of land.
In 1895 a little more than eight million
acres were taken. In 1899 q little more
than nine million In 1900 began the agi-
t.tion for restriction Of the land privi-
lege.
The dictators of the live stock ranges
realized the probable results Of this agi-
tation and counted it as an inevitable
event Of the near future that they should
be either ousted from the free range they
rcw hold as private property or else will
be compelled 10 pay toll TO the people and
give some reckoning Of their use OF this
valuable public property.
Under the lax administration Of imper-
feet laws II is easy enough for those who
so desire 10 extend their holdings of gov
eminent land almost without limit, and n
the year 1900 operations began upon the
gigantic scale which has since aroused
the fear and Indignation Of those charged
with the honest administration Of the law
and those who haYe looked upon the
economic value of the remaining public
land as one of the great national re-
sources IN times OF stress, either indus
trial or social
Nearly fourteen million acres OF land /
were taken in 1899 from the public domain,
a jump Of fifty per cent over the figures
of the year before. In 1901 nearly sixteen
million acres disappeared from the gov
eminent maps. in 1872 nearly twenty
million acres was the grand total shown
In the Land Commissioners report. and
1888 promises 10 make a new record, with
an absorption OF between thirty and thir-
ty-five million acres Of land.
In the eighties when the Land Office
made its great record in caring for home
seekers. the population of State or
Territory increased in direct ratio TO the
number Of land claims filed.
= curious feature of the present land
operations of the United States govern
ment Is that not only has there been no
s,e~ease Of DODularion noticeabi in the