Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1906-10-19
NO. T..
Came Too Late.

Interstate Commerce Commissioner
Prouty,. who made an investigation
of the subject, has completed report
which shows that the presidents plan
Of Withdrawing coal lands from entry
comes too late, that practically a rail-
;oad monopoly of Western coal fields
already exists, and the only remedy
is to set aside by legislation patents
fraudulently obtained to millions Of
acres Of mineral lands.
The report will son be submitted to
the President. 1t may be made pub
lie, but its contents are known. 1t
outlines a gigantic scheme Of land
fraud that has been for many years
inextricably tangled with the mining
and transporting of coal in Wyoming
Colorado. and Utah. The Union Pg
cifc Railroad principally is attackd
in the report, but the Santa Fe AMI
the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company
and the Denver and Rio Grande aes
named as concerns whose activiV1
in acquiring government coal laA 4
may not bear the limeligIht.
Senator Clark, of Wyoming, pow
er on the Republican side of the Sen
ate is dragged into the tangle. His
brother, D. 0. Clark, is president OF
The Union Pacific Coal Company
which is owned by the Union Pacific
Railroad. 1t is stated that only a
elosely-woven web of political infu-
ence enabled the continuation Of the
frauds.
Mr.. Prouty was assigned to the
task Of investigating the situation as
to the Western roads under the Till.
man-Gillespie resolution calling on
the Interstate Commerce Commission
for a report on the extent Of the coal
lands held by the railroads Of the
country, and he finds the greatest in
yenuity has been devoted to the de-
velopment of devices for securing tka
ownership of the public domain for
the railroad or its subsidiary compa-
nies.
The Union Pacific owns the s5,OO0,-
900 capital Of the Union Pacific Coal
Company. A director Of the Union
Pacific holds the stock Of the Superior
Coal Company, which controls many
acres Of the lands. The railroad and
the two companies, Mr.. Prouty's re-
port shows work together on a system
for getting and holding the coal lands
and controlling their development.
Criticism is aimed at the Interior
Department in this connection for its
failure to protect the public domain.
The department has various agents
throughout the public land country,
1ut they are declared to be subject
o local political influences, and ac-
complish little.
The investigation brought out that
prominent politician of Wyoming
admitted to using $4,000 of money
provided him by the railroads to buy
ing and entering coal lands, which lie
afterward relinquished to the road
receiving 5000 for his trouble. Others
did not get so much. Bartenders and
gamblers were paid S. for the use Of
their names in entering claims which
were soon relinquished to the roads.
This was the principal method of
evading the law.
Mr.. Prouty will urge that many Of
those patents be set aside and thai
some fundamental change in the land
laws be made to back the grip Of the
railroads.
These developments show the inef-
fectiveness of the Presidents s plan
Of Withdrawing lands from entry in
that the accessible lands are already
in the hands of the railroads, and in
that the railroads will fight the devel-
opment of any lands not theirs. In
accordance with the Presidents re-
quest for a report on the extent Of
unentered coal lands, the Geodetical
Survey has put eight parties in the
fields of the Far West looking up the
facts.