The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-06-24
This Would Mean Thirty States the Size Of
Massachusetts or Five as Large as
the State of New York.
Congress Much to Blame For This Systematic
Robbery Committed With knowledge
Of the Government.

Within the last sixteen years there I
has been stolen from the public do
main not less than 150,O00,OOO acres,
an area that would make thirty states
of the size of Massachusetts, five
states as large as New York, or three
states as large as Kansas, says Wm
r. Lighton in the Boston Transcript
When the truth is known-as it may
be by and by-these figures will
doubtless be doubled, trebled or quad
rupled. The present statement is one
justified by present knowledge.
A recent grand jury investigation in
California, backed up by other official
inquiry, disclosed that one man alone
in that state holds title to nearly 49,
100000 acres, acquired within the
time named by the fragrant processes
Of theft. There are dozens, and even
scores of men, whose stealings will
run from 10000 to 100000 acres or
more, the extent of their grabs de-
pending principally upon their ability
to swing the transactions to success
full issue.
No reference is made to the solemn,
semi official chicanery of the railroad
land grants or to the equally bald
grants in the southwest, CLOSING over
earlier offerings. Those deals appear
by comparison impeccably honest and
| above reproach. This charge relates
only to such downright, outright, de-
| liberate stealing as cannot be describ-
ed by any other name, bearing no
stamp of formal official approval.
Wherever there is a body of public
land large enough to make a bait worth
swallowing there the thefts are 60
ing on. Lands Of every description are
included. Millions of acres in the rich
wheat valleys of California have been
stolen; millions of acres of grazing
lands on the plains of Kansas, Nebras-
ka, Dakota, Wyoming and Montana
have been stolen; millions Of acres of
timber land In northern California,
Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and
Montana have been stolen, not to
mention the earlier stealings in the
now almost devasted timber regions
of Michigan, Wisconsin and Mime
sofa, and the lumber thieves are ply
ing their shameless trade unhindered
in the new fields of Mississippi and
other undeveloped districts of the
south; unnumbered acres of mineral
land have been stolen-in fact, moth
ing worth stealing has escaped the
clutch Of these bold outlaws.
Outlaws, but respectable-oh, emf
nently respectable! These thieves, If
you please, are mostly numbered
among the Industrial and financial
"barons" and "kings" of the west of
whom so much is being heard and
whose grip upon political and all other
public affairs is so sharply felt. There
Is the "cattle baron," the mining
lord" the lumber king"-each a
mighty man in his domain, all but alb
solute in his power of dictation not
only in his particular personal sphere,
but in matters of state.
Get these fellows in a talkative and
reminiscent mood and nine out of ten
of them will tell you that they Struck
the west" only little while ago with
a capital of nothing at all save their
colossal nerve and their rudimentary
conscience. How have they made
their money, think you? BY the luck
of those born under propitious signs?
Through the marvellous opportunities
of a new country? BY natural-born
boldness of initiative, helped out by
thrift and frugality in their chosen
fields of activity? BY any of the pleas
ant, heaven-approved old ways of ira
dition? The plain, unvarnished truth
is that three out of four of these vast
piles of money represent shares in the
public land gratis, in one form or
another. To start with absolutely
nothing and after dozen years or SO
to have amassed a fortune repre-
senting an average annual accretion
of 100000 or more, by none but