The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1904-01-21
LAND GRABBING AS AN INDUSTRY.

$1,000
The land grabbers seem to have fall
len upon evil times. Secretary Hitch
cock has put his agents on their trail
| throughout the west and the newspa-
per dispatches are burdened with sto-
ries of fraudulent entries and rumors
of indictments. But this is not the
/ worst of it-from the standpoint of the
land grabbers. The American people
are waking up and demanding the re-
peal of laws which make the land grab
Der possible.
Disclosures thus far made indicate
that the stealing is going on with two
main objects in view. One is to enable
| stockmen to get firm possession of land
which they have formerly used as a
free range: the other, to extend and to
perfect hard and-fast monopoly of the
timber resources of the West. Both
objects strike straight at the prosperi-
| ty of the common millions of home
seekers to whom this public property
now belongs by every moral and legal
right.
The prosperity of the future home
seeker in the Rocky Mountain region
demands that he shall have an oppor-
tunity to enjoy the use of the public
range While he will undertake to
handle but few heads of stock. in com
parison with the great cattle syndi-
Gates and corporations, it is neverthe
! less essential that he shall enjoy his
rights in the public pasture. Every
time a quarteT-section is transferred
from the public domain to one of the
big cattle companies the opportunity
for profitable settlement by genuine
homesteaders is curtailed. Carried to
! its logical conclusions, the present poll
cy of land absorption by livestock
monopolies would shut out poor men
from the use of the public pasture al
most entirely. And this would have
a most unfortunate influence upon the
settlement Of the arid region.
The instruments used in the acquisi-
ton of the public domain for live stock
purposes are the Desert Land Law and
the Communication Clause OF the Home
stead Law The former requires no resi-
dence whatever on the land the latter
a residence of only fourteen months,
which is frequently merely nominal.
| The claim that the present laws are
necessary to preserve the live stock in
dustry from gradual extinction through
the encroachment of cultiyators of the
soil is wholly groundiess. The figures
of the last national census show that
Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Washing
ton, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New
| Mexico, covering $40, 200 square miles,
had only 1850, 500 head Of cattle On
the other hand, the farming State of
Iowa, with only $4,000 square miles,
had 1851, $50 cattle, CIR half a million
more than the six States and the
two territories which follow tie range
method. There is but one element
benefited by the abuse Of the laws
which is now going on. That is the
clement which is acquiring the owner
ship of vast estates to be held for
speculation and monopoly.
The absorption of timber lands
strikes another and an even harder
blow at the settler The wanton de
struction of the forests which follows
| impairs the watershed on which the
settler depends for the supply Of his
Irrigation bitches. Monopoly IMPOSES
| high price for the lumber which the set
tier must use in making his improve
ments. Finally, he is deprived of the
| opportunity to get little timber on his
good faith and in compliance with the
spirit of the law.
These lands frauds throughout the
west are open and notorious. They are
not always frowned upon by public
sentiment in the localities where they
are committed. In every western COM
munity there is strong desire to see the
country develop "while we are alive"
Capital Is required TOT the work, and II
capital must be tempted into the field by
the opportunity to make profitable
monopoly of the timber, why then,
nothing could be better than the pres
ent laws!
The Administration is doing it's duty
in hunting down the land thieves as
rapidly as it can. A healthy public
sentiment is beginning to come to the
support of those who demand the re-
peal of the laws. But the remedy lies
wholly in the hands of Congress.
| Congress must act, and act speedily, or
the most valuable portions of the public
domain will be forever lost.
| WILLIAM E. SNIYTHE.