The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1904-08-19
TREKIMBALLG
cLATE 7,MAN
Official Paper Of the CITY and County


ROSEBUD AFTERMATH
Now that the boom, the glamor and
the excitement OF the Rosebud OPEN
ing has passed, there is more or less
criticism and discussion among the
newspapers-particularly on the part
Of the big dailies from outside circu-
lating in state-upon the glaring de-
fects in the land laws. 1t has been
thoroughly demonstrated-as early
pointed out by the GRAPn1C-that
the rush for the Rosebud lands was
not SO much from a desire to become a
land owner in South Dakota as from Il
natural inclination to profit from
someone else's desire. In the Scram-
BILE the poor man who was really de-
sirous of establishing a home had less
than one chance in forty and rubbed
elbows with scores worth their thouS-
ands and others who would not live
on a16O acres Of prairie land six months
for a small fortune. 1t is pointed out
that many who drew inside numbers
already own fine farms and any num-
Der of others are far removed from
| want and have no need of Il tract of
Uncle Sans domain. For this reas-
on it has been suggested that 1t would
have been better to have paid the
Indians a fair price for the land and
thrown it open free to all. This, of
course, was out of the question. The
Sioux City Tribune has suggested
that it would haye been we'll enough
to have had a property qualification
| barred out any person worth $1,000.
A restriction of this kind would have
awaited nothing. 1t could have been
}gotten around as easily as many 9th
ers have been from time to time.
The prime weakness in our land
laws lies in the communication clause
| and the liberty which the land Office
| officials construe the laws in general.
Within the past year an Iowa phys
ician ''proved up" on a quarter Sec
tion CT land in Lyman county without
much trouble, though his family new
er saw the land. His residence con-
sisted of an occasional visit-as has
been done in SO many other instances.
But as he was a"foreigner'' and had a
family his case was looked into some
what. But when he proved by an
affidavit from his wife that he had
thirteen children, and produced a
photograph of the family group to
prove it, with an additional affidavit
that the 16O acres would not sustain
his family, his papers went through
O. X. The question arises: If the land
would not support him and his family
what business had he with it to begin
with? How much better Tor the
country to haye kept that land unit
some>man came along who could make
1t support HIM.
If the Rosebud land had been open,
ed without a Communication clause anG
with the restriction that NJ person
owning forty acres or who had at any
time profited by the homestead, pre-
emption or tree claim laws, ther.
would have been no boom, no graf
for the hangers on at Bonesteel, Fair
fax and other points bordering tn.
reservation, but the country would
advance more in i've years than it will
in the next fifteen. The trouble is
those boomers and spectators tear
ing the clothes off u congressmel
for the opening of such tracts Of Ian,
are more concerned for the Temporal
benefit they can get out OF it than TO
the actual good of the state at large
In rare cases, as in Oklahoma an,
the Sisseton reservation upin Robert
county, this state, the land had sucl
value for farming purposes that 1T !
practically all brought under settle
ment. This may prove largely true Q
the Rosebud, but the fact remain
that the land passes through two o
three hands before it gets to the ma
who will use st and he is bled accord
lngly. When the law compels d ma,
to liYe on the land five years befor
loCCullllS d UAUlC W ~ duu CNC1t lCdt
of absence goes before the local LAM
Office on its merits, he will get tn
land in the first place.
If it is the object of the government
to get rid of the public domain a
soon as possible, the land laws are a.
right. II not, they are all wrong. L
an early day much encouragement
was necessary to ainduce people t
come out to the frontier-to the Da
kota's Nebraska and Kansas. Blu
. that time has all gone by. 1t is n
. longer expedient to give a man 16
I acres for a homestead, another l6O 70
a presumption and still another 100 fo
tree claim. But every inducemen
y should be made the man who will Il
: cate In good faith, while effectuall
= barring out those who are grabblin
! the land for what money they ca