Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-02-01
er SYNONYMOUS use that suggests
RAID ON PUBLIC LANDS.


! RAID ON PUBLIC LANDS.
s'ro"o Opposition to the Proposed
Homestead Law Change.
"A wholesale raid is in evidence at
washington designed upon the re-
Mainlng western public lands. AL.
ready this session two bills have been
introduced by Representatives Mar.
I'm and Brooks allowing man to
JAKE up square mile of government
anu IN South Dakota and in Colorado
respectively and permitting thosewho
may nave already made 160-acre
homestead entry to make an addition
al entry of 48O acres.
Inc claim has been persistently
made by western land men that a
man can not make home and living
on l6O acres anywhere in the west,
ana SO this square-mile-hOme-pla is
brought forward as means of get
tlng the public domain into private
ownership as rapidly as possible. The
question Is, even assuming that $40
acres is not too large farm for the
government to give citizen, to whom
will this land go?
Inc bills above mentioned are mod
eled after the Kinkaid law, which an.
plies the GAO acre unit to western Ne.
braska and was slipped through con.
gress at the tail end OF last session.
Yet it was not thirty days before It
was charged that under this law the
Nebraska cattlemen had secured
ABOUT all they wanted in Nebraska.
The Kinkaid law and the above bills
provide that where man has a 100.
acre entry, or mere filing on 160-
acres, ne snail have the preference
rlgnt to enter an adjoining 480 acres,
ana IN Nebraska the cattlemen are
aileged to have entered" through
,nelr employees, their choice of the
lands, SO that as soon as the law
passed, they simply had to apply in
eacn case for the contiguous $50
acres. 1t takes but a lew such en-.
tries-they can be mad, half a mile
wide and two miles long-to control
a vast territory of country.
IL was fOreseen that similar hills
10 the kinkaid Nebraska law would
be Immediately introduced at this SEES
sion and 1t it is understood that
NUMBER more such measures will fol.
low to include other states. If con.
sress is to act further in this mat.
Ter. the issue must be met suuarely
ana frankly, the present homestead
law overturned and a square mile
made the homestead unit for the en-
tlre country, instead of the present
100 acres.
apparent safeguards are provided
IN these bills. Authorizing the secre.
tary OF the interior to immediately
wlthdraw any such lands as he NAV
ueem mt FOR irrigation under the na.
tlonal irrigation law. Some of such
lands, OF course, have been withdrawn
and they have been and are con.
stantly being withdrawn, under the
irrigation law itself, from speculative
entry by use of the desert land law
ana the communication clause of tho
homestead law These Withdrawals
are being made from time to time
out only after Investigation and snr.
Vey to determine which NAV no r..
rlgable lands. Active as the geoloe.
lcal survey has been lii it's western
Investigations, it is more criminal
than absurd to assume that the gov
eminent Is in possession of sufficient
accurate information regarding the
Dilllon or so acres composing the en-
ure western half of the United states
when would enable it to intelligent. |
~ Wltndraw what may later prove to
oe lrrlgable lands. With the utmost
ACTIVITY and the most energetic SIR.
Veys 1t must be ten if not fifteen |
years before the government can DOS
slDly know what are all it's irrigabie |
lands. ''e"''e
III the meantime, under the pro.
posed plan every acre will have been
taken up in these $40 acre tracts. and
as provided in the Brooks bill for
Colorado. committed, after the farce
OF fourteen months residence has
been gone through with, and then
transferred to syndicates or corpora.
tons in single tracts as large and
monopolistic as desired.
RMS entry on the public domain
OF $40 acre homesteads with the priv.
ilege of committing is even a more
bold faced fraud than was the old
desert law with it's $40 acre proyis.
ion. which later was with a great
flourish of reform trumpets, cut down
to 800 acres. To legally comply with
the communication clause, all that is
necessary is for stock herder, fov
instance, to file on a homestead in
the fall, say October. He need not
visit his claim for six months Then
in March he can put up a SIS shack
and purport to live in it during the
following eight months. while he is
herding his stock in the neighbor-
hood, sleeping in it once a month or
less At the end of eight months he
can prove up and get his title to the
land from the government and inn.
transfer it to his employ
er, receiving PROBABLY as bonus $50
for the use of this land privilege.
He has fully complied with the law,
and his position can not be legally
attacked.
AS applied to even 100 acres, the
communication clause has been an out
rage. Utilizing it for GAO acre fill
lngs would more than quadruple it's
evil for it would cast uf practically