The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-10
CHANGING LAND LAWS.

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president to investigate the condition
and administration Of the general land
laws and to make recommendations as
to their repeal or change has rendered
a report which, If not wholly satisfac-
tory, is so vast an Improvement upon
the present situation that the whole
country would applaud if it's eonelu-
sions were to be made law. Our land
laws as they now stand are fairly
disgrace They give no particular priv
ilege to the honest settler, but they do
offer tempting opportunities every
where to the land grabber, the syndi-
cate and the individual thief. They are
a standing Indictment to fraud, and the
means by which what is left Of the
public domain may be conveyed with
ease and expedition to private and I'M
worthy ownership. There is hardly an
honest man in the country who has
given the subject any thought without
becoming convinced of the necessity
of a complete change.
The commission was composed Of
men whose familiarity with the SUBJ
ject and ability to reach proper con-
clusion cannot be questioned. The
commissioner Of the general land office,
the chief forester of the department of
agriculture and the chief engineer of
the reclamation service represent all
the great governmental interests di-.
rectly affected. Their advice COM
mands the highest respect. They rec
ommend the repeal of the timber and
stone act, which shelters the most fla
grant of all abuses. They would sell
for appraisal only the timber on public
lands needed for Industrial purposes,
whether in large quantities or small
They recommend the repeal of the
law permitting assignment of entries
under the desert land law and a more
careful administration of it. Here, We
think, they stop short Of the proper
course. The desert land law cannot be
improved by better administration, be-
cause it is too thoroughly bad in itself.
1t ought to follow the timber and stone
acts and leave behind even less record
than they. With the execution of our
great irrigation policy the desert land
to the government and the greatest OBJ
stacle to the practical reclamation Of
arid lands Lett go the way of<its as.
socialism, iniquity.
The commission recommends restric-
ton of the Communication clause of the.
homestead act where such entries are
located within forest reserves. 1t would
have, instead, a law allowing home
stead entries in these reserves to be
made by metes and bounds, instead of
the rectangular system, so that valleys
and small areas of tillable land could
be taken up with ease. This would be
very we'll if everybody was strictly
honest and sought only the public
good. But we have seen how it goes
| down in the Indian territory and in
the postal service. This whole matter
of entries within forest reserves should
be settled in the beginning, and not left
to adjustment by private influence or
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tween officials and enterprising land
agents. Whenever land is set aside for
forest reserves, the governments
agents can ascertain if there are parts
of it available for settlement, and
these can be formally exempted. The
communication clause ought to be wholly
extinguished and settlement allowed
only on lands specifically designated in
advance by law.
| No greater boon could be offered to
| the West at the present time than the
! reduction of our land laws to a mini
mum, and the reform of dishonest
practices which their encouragement
has made rife. We need them no
more. They are being applied to the
injury of the settler, the West and the
nation. All that is permissible today
is a straight homestead act, conveying
title only to the bona fide settler, and
| to him only after he has earned it by
| fully five years actual residence. The
spectators and grafters have hidden
long under the guise of the settler.
They are smoked out now. Why not
keep them out? If we could get a con-
| gress stern enough. in honesty to lop
away all these useless and now mostly
fraudulent laws and give us one plain
rigid act saving the public domain for
| the actual farmer, it would win popular
approval.
! How Nero would have loved to live in
| Ohio-if he was Republican!
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