The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-11-23
THE LAND GRAB" FRAUD
Methods Employed to Defraud
the u. S. Government
HARD ON REAL SETTLERS
Many Inscriptions Persons Lay
Claim to Large Tracts and Erect
Temporary Huts or Cabins-Jn-
der Law Minor Becomes Head
of the Family by Adopting a Child.

of the Family by Adopting Child.
The ingenuity and audacity of the
men who have been and still are en-
gagged in defrauding the United
States out of public lands are
equalled only by the absolute con-
sciencelessness of this class of swim
dlers. Every possible device is re-
sorted to by the men who have
sought to acquire illegal title to the
public domain, says the New York
Times.
An instance of this character which
recently came TO light was found in
Idaho. A single contractor had
erected, on the order of a land COM
pany, thirty-four cabins on as many
homestead entries-"one hundred
and sixties they are called in the
Land Ofice-had furnished them
with the usual meager furniture of
the genuine cabin, had actually built
fires in the little sheet iron stoves, in
order that the cabins might appear TO
have been occupied, and had hung
from the rafters of each a fragment
of fitch of bacon. On each "one hun
dred and sixty" about a quarter OF
an acre had been actually titled and
planted TO potatoes. The entries were
made in the name of thirty-four in
dividuals, the work done by the con-
tractor was performed the following
summer, and when the legal fourteen
months had expired the alleged set
tiers appeared before a United
States commissioner, each made affi-
davit that he had lived on and culti-
waited his claim for fourteen months.
paid down the nominal price of
S1.25 an acre prescribed by law,
where the commutation clause of the
Homestead act is availed of, and
final proof" having thus been made
title was granted, subject to final
ratification by the Land Office in
Washington.
1t was just here that something
aroused the suspicion of the special
agent charged with passing on the
claims, and he began an investiga-
ton, which revealed the fact that no
one of the claimants had ever re-
sided on the land, that the cabins
and the cultivation had all been per-
formed by a single contractor, act
ing under orders from a large land
company, and that each of the ficti-
tious settlers was under contract to
sell his homestead as soon as the til
tie was perfected to the land COM
pany for a nominal sum. Had the
scheme worked in this instance, as it
u
the land company would have ac-
quired a tract of 5,440 acres at a
cost of little less than $4,000, and
this tract would have been worth at
the least calculation 5000, would
probably have yielded double or tre-
bic that sum in timber, and then the
denuded land would have been left
in the hands of the land company, to
be sold as opportunity offered for
grazing purposes
Another fertile source of fraud is
the provision of the land law which
entities soldiers or soldiers widows
to deduct from the five years neces-
sary to a free homestead entry the
term of army service of such SOL
dier. For instance, a land or cattle
company desiring to secure title to
large tract will scour the country for
INDECENT widows of old soldiers.
When sufficient company has been
gathered together each will be 10
Gated on homestead entry. These
women are generally ignorant of the
character of the transaction in which
they are asked to participate They
are only informed that they can Sc
cure their living and from $50 to SIS
in cash by living for six months each
year in little cabin which will be
furnished them without expense. If
a soldier has served throughout the
war, four years, his widow can
prove up" after one years resi-
dence on the claim, and this year"
is apocryphal, for in practice, it is re-
duced 10 six months, generally the
summer season.
The injustice resulting from the
acquisition of large tracts of land by
cattle and lumber companies is
grave. One or two thousand acres or
more fenced and devoted to grazing
or numbering operations renders the
region almost untenable to the gem
uine settler. He is deprived of neigh
bors, roads, school--in a word, of all
those advantages which a commu-
nifty would afford him, and all too Of
ten he sickens of his isolated posi-
tion and finally sells his homestead
to the company which has already
acquired monopoly of his sur
roundings. And all this is in addi-
tion to the Illustration of the pur-
pose of the government in granting
land to settlers on such easy terms,
the settlement of the area by small
home owners The great landed
companies which already monopolize
so great portion of what were orig
inally public lands, not only consti-
tute an impossible barrier to the ad-
vance of civilization and the develop
ment of the country, but they have
In MANY instances hecoma manaca