The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1907-04-27
m BREAK MONOPOLY
poyIpARTE MAY GO AFTER union
Pacific GRANT.
c,,;med that Railroad Has Vi
Lated the Terms of Its Charter.
Has Ruled Like Fendal Baron,
Even Forbidding Settlement on
Public Domain.

cbavenne. Wyo., April 22.-As one
40 results of the recent investiga-
. u by the Interstate commerce COM
'io la;on into Western land frauds. At
u 1-nov General Bonaparte has under
liberation an attempt to force the
T TIion Pacific railroad to return to the
.orernment all the millions of acres
s h;cb remain unsold of the original
va Grant. Of the grant of more than
90 rr ooo 600 acres, the road holds an
Uoo oonal to the state of Connecticut,
pbode Island and Delaware, and still
bare nearly 100000 acres left over.
T T immense body of land in Nebras-
70 Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and
Ttath, if returned to the government,
uonld Immediately be thrown open to
.ottlement under the homestead laws.
Immediately after the interstate
commerce. commissions investigation
If the conditions which have made
Dossible the monopoly in coal land
rbicb the Union Pacific has main
famed for % years, Commissioner
proutv called upon the attorneys for
tbe commission to submit recommend
ATOMS for remedial Legislation or to sug-
gast other means of dealing with the
monopoly Those recommendations
are now in the hands of the attorney
general.
destroy the land monopoly Of the
Union Pacific" is the basis OF this
report
Provisions of Land Grant
A paragraph of this report, dealing
with the question says:
at seems that the conditions which
attended the grant have been evaded,
disreagrded or vitiated by fraud, or
have lapsed by time"
One of the charter provisions under
which the land was granted is the fol-
lowing:
"All such lands so granted by this
section which shall not be sold or dis
posed of by said company within three
years after the entire road shall have
been completed, shall be subject to
settlement and presumption like other
lands at price not exceeding $l.25
per acre to be paid to the
government land offices and
eventually to the Union Pacific rail-
road company"
1t is forty years since this land was
granted to the railroad and today
nearly 100000 acres of the grant is
still in the possession of that company.
When Carl Schurz was secretary of
the interior an Investigation of this
land was held. Mr.. Schurz construed
this clause to mean that the land not
disposed of at the end OF three years
from the time granted should return
to the government and be sold as other
public lands. the proceeds to be hand
ed over to the Union Pacific. But the
Union Pacific had placed a blanket
mortgage on all its land, and the
United States supreme court decided
that, as long as the mortgages we're
unpaid, innocent purchasers would
suffer and the land could not be re-
turned to the public domain. Later,
when the Union Pacific went into the
hands of receiver, this mortgage was
paid OFF. If the court should hold
that the original charter was Guiding,
thls land could be taken away from
the Union Pacific and the great mon
Opoly would be broken.
Union Pacific Owns Everything
And the monopoly which the Union
faclhc maintains in Southern Wyom-
ing Is the most complete in the world.
There are towns in Wyoming which
ueiong to the Union Pacific absolutely.
Every building, every store, every
street, every alley and practically ev-
cry man is owned outright by that
iaiiroad. Towns have been formed
ou' never Incorporated. Streets have
never been decided to the municipal
ny, out remain the property of the
iaiiroad. The houses have been erect
~ oy the railroad and still remain it's
property. Such a town is Hanna,
Were are situated several of the larg-
W coal mines of the state. Every
s s',eet and alley in the town bears the
'0ilowing notice:
his is no thoroughfare. Private
road.n
>. livery house in the town belongs to
s sue railroad. The first thing pas
.snser sees when he alights from q
th ain Is sign telling him he is on
m pe private property of the railroad.
d iue Motel belongs to the railroad. So
w. a'S the bank. So do the streets and
the stores.
fl II labor agitator appears among
la as miners, he is promptly ordered to
cove ve town-get off the company's
ss a if he refuses he is ar
M. 'eo oy Union Pacific policeman,
~ % board Union Pacific train
o aua sent out of the Union Pacific's
untry. He can do nothing. He is
Wes me- on private property.
d., "hat is true of Hanna is true of a
LEU L other towns. On what appears
a p pe the high road from Rock Springs
mil; hofse Thief Canon, distance of %