East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1905-02-28

BIeSS py pIeSiuenN, WHICH Cohtdlu
such far-reaching recommendations,
have caused less notice than the re-
port OF the public lands commission.
printed last week, with a special mes
sage from the president. heartily en-
dcrsins all its findings. and cnarac-
te. .zing the subject as one OF great
magnitude and Importance"
The public lands commission is
composed of w. A. Richards COM
missioner of the general land office,
Frederick H. Newell, chief engineer
OF the reclamation service. and Gif-
ford Pinchot, chief forester.
Their report is a short document of
a eozen pages, but It is a scathing. II
diErifed. arraignment of our various
agricultural and timber land laws. II
its recommendations are carried out
by congress 1t will effect smashing
OF chez ished idols in the West and
ali cverturn of a general practice of
acquiring government land, because
It Is there to acquire and If one man
don't get it, another man will.
Land Monopoly.
This report is one of the most pro-
found documents which has come to
congress for some time. In discussing
the question of land monopoly, al
though not under that yellow" head,
Il states that nearly everywhere in the
West the large land owner has sue
ceeded in securing the best tracts,
whether OF timber or agricultural
land.
No specific acreages are stated in
the report but to indicate the extent
to which lands have been acquired by
single corporations, a government en-
gfneer recently called attention, at a
meetings of engineers, to a single
tract of western land owned by
corporation embracing four million
acres.
There has been some outcry against
this condition, the report states, yet
the lack of greater protest is signifi-
cant. 1t is explained by the energy,
shrewdness and influence of men to
whom the continuance of the present
land laws is desirable.
The Commission has had inquiries
made as TO how number of estates,
selected haphazard have been ac-
quired. Almost without exception.
collusion or evasion of the letter and
spirit of the land laws was involved.
IT is not necessary to be inferred that
the present owners of these estates
were dishonest but the fact remains
that their holdings were acquired or
consolidated by practices which can
not be defended.
Claims Patented Without Making of
Homes.
There exists and is spreading in
the West a tenant or hired-labor sys-
tenn, which not only represents a
relatively low industrial development,
but whose further extension carries
with it a most serious threat. Politi-
cally. socially. and economically, this
system is indefensible. Had the land
laws been effective and effectually
enforced its growth would have been
impossible,
"The fundamental fact that char
acterizes the present situation is this:
That the number of patents issued is
increasing out OF al proportion to the
new homes"
The report states that under the
timber and stone act "the government
has lost and is losing yearly vast
sums of money through the sale of
valuable timber lands to spectators"
and recommends in the public inter
est that the law should be repealed.
The lieu land forest reserve law is
also criticized as a scandalous act and
its Immediate repeal recommended.
The Communication clause of the
homestead law is also scored as hav-
ing resulted in the entering of great
areas of government land for the pur-
pose of speculation.
Houses Built, But Not Occupied.
The homestead shanties of the COM
muters, It is stated, may be seen in
various degrees of dllapidation, but
they show no evidence of genuine oc-
cupation. The great bulk of the COM
muting business is transacted through
some agent who represents his client
in all dealings and prepares all pa
pers to allow entry by school teach
ers, servants, ETC., who are in no
sense settlers.
The report denounces the desert
land law as an instrument Of specu-
lation fraud and perjury and recon-
mends such radical changes in It as
to amount almost to fits repeal.
Hundreds of desert entries were
examined by the members of the
commission in the last year, and the
great majority of them were found
to be uninhabited, unirrigated, un-
cultivated and with no improvements
other than fence. Many alleged ir-
rigation bitches or reservoirs are IA
miliar to the members of the commits
sion, which are utterly inadequate to
irrigate a square rod, and upon the
strength of such works patent has
been frequently issued to $50 acres
The West Still the Great Unknown
The commission states that the
agricultural possibilities of the re-
naming public lands are as yet al
most unknown, and lands which a
generation ago. or even a decade,
were supposed to be valueless are
now producing large crops, either
with or without irrigation.
because of possible development