Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-03-15

AAieS $idSSSS VI Valuable LdnO-uOW i ncy
Have Been Juefled-" Preferential Rights
for Spectator and Strict Law for Farmer
- Diversity Of Policy - Extent of the
Bunco Game Not Yet Reached.
Historians of the future, who seek
to promulgate the truthful history of
the first two decades of the State of
Washington, will write as it's most
disgraceful chapter the account of
the laws and methods by which the
State has been and is being robbed
of its once magnificent and valuable
heritage of tide and granted lands.
He will find, when he turns his in
vestigatiOns to that subject, that
within decade from the date
when the State was created, it was
looted by ruthless robbers in the
guise of upright citizens, under vari-
ious species of grand larceny clothed
with the forms of law, of property
which is already of a reasonable value
of more than $50, 900, 900 and which
is destined within the life of men
now living to be worth many times
that sum.
The statement may appear at first
blush to be exaggerated, but a study
of the situation and its history affords
it ample confirmation, and no good
citizen can make such a study, even
in a casual manner, without being
aroused to a white heat of indigna-
ton at the schemes that have been
worked, the laws that have been
passed, and the methods that have
been pursued by individuals and
groups of individuals, in many in
stances gentlemen who pose as being
the States best citizens, to secure
for their personal advantage and
profit possession and title to portions
of the great landed estate of the
commonwealth.
Not all of this great estate has yet
been dissipated. More than a mil
lion acres of the less valuable lands
still remain in the States possession,
and several million dollars will yet
be received from the sale of them,
even under the lax and imperfect
laws and methods under which they
are being disposed of, but the most
valuable portions have already passed
into private hands at prices in many
instances which bear no material re-
lation to their actual value. And the
laws and the deals under which they
have been dissipated are so honey
combed with fraud and favoritism,
have been so fraught with public
scandal and smeared with private
selfshness, that, considering the de-
grading influences they have exerted
upon the States standard of citizen
ship, it becomes serious question
whether this magnificent heritage
has not proven a public curse rather
than public blessing.
The landed estate of the common
wealth was derived from two general
sources and consisted of land of three
general classes. When the State was
admitted to the union the national
government, under the enabling act,
granted it from the lands within the
State title to which had been there
tofore asserted by the United States,
various grants for various State pur
poses aggregating approximately two
million eight hundred thousand acres.
Following the precedent first pro-
mulgated in 1879 in reference to the
Northwest Territory, the National
government gave to the State gov
ernment for the benefit of the. COM
mon schools two sections, numbered
16 and 36, of each township as sur
veyed. This amounted to approxi-
mately $3.50, 900 acres. The Federal
government granted the State also,
subject to selection by the State au-
thorities from any unappropriated
lands in the State, 100, 900 acres for
normal school purposes, $4,000 acres
for the endowment of an agricultural
college, 100000 for the endowment
of scientific school, 100, 900 for the
establishment of State charitable, ed
ncational, penal and reformatory in
stitutions, 10000 for a State Uni
versity (46,0OO having been previ-
ously granted) and $4,000 for the
erection of buildings at the State
capital.
In addition to this the State assert
ed in it's constitution title to all the
tide and shore lands bordering on
the navigable waters of the State to
be disposed of as provided by law un-
der that constitution.
These lands were of three general
classes, first the tide and shore lands,
useful and valuable for purposes OF
trade, industry and commerce; Sec
ond, the timber lands of Western
Washington, valuable for the timber
standing on them and, third, the
farming and grazing lands, some OF
which were of very poor quality.
It was considered at the time the
constitution was adopted, and sub
sequent events have proven the cor
rectness of this assumption, that OF
these three classes of lands the tide