Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-05-26
Department OF Justice Deter
mined to Set Another Pros
ecution in Motion
RAILROAD LANDS INVOLVED
Government Will Attempt to Wrest
100000 Acres of Land From
Southern Pacific - Sale Price to
Settlers, Fixed in Grant Ignored by
Company = Congress and Work. !.

Especial Washington Correspondence
Washington, May 26.-Right on the
heels of the, New Haven railroad mer-
ger prosecution, it is announced. the
department Of justice is going to set
another prosecution In motion, against
another big railroad combination.
This time it will be the Hartman
system. which must defend its right to
an immense area of extremely valu-
able lands. The administration has
determined, If possible. to wrest from
the Southern PACIFIC some 35,00O,OOO
acres of lands In western Oregon.
These lands were given to the old
Southern Pacific several decades ago,
to induce the construction of railroad
lines. The roads were built, but it Is
charged that the holders Of the land
grant have persistently failed to live
up to other parts of the obligation to
the government. 1t was provided In
the grant that these lands should be
sold in 160-acre tracts, at $3.50 an acre
whenever settlers should appear ask
ing them at that figure.
The Southern Pacific has refused to
sell at this figure, and as to large
proportion Of the lands has declined to
sell at figures which represent many
times the upset price dictated by the
government. The Oregon people have
been persisting that these lands
ri, ~ 20 Il a
at last the government has determ-
ined to prosecute
B. d. Townsend, federal attorney in
land fraud actions, will leave for the
west tomorrow, after conference with
the department of justice. He will
stop in North Dakota for conference
with e. G.. Becker, of Buffalo, another
government lawyer in land cases, and
then will go direct to Portland, Ore,
where as soon as possible he will file
action to dispossess the Southern Pa
cific Of these lands, and to secure
decree annulling the grant and restor-
ing them to the public domain.
It has been said good many times
that there never was legislative
OOuy ia Illo WoAlo oO AOSSA 1AiAAASo W
load itself with unnecessary work as
the congress of the United States. Con-
gress prefers to do all the things it
can do, and a good many things which
could better be done by somebody else
for it. It hates to trust any function
which it can possibly discharge to
anybody else.
Senator Aldrich, than whom no man
better understands these little matters,
called attention to one curious con-
gressional procedure, which makes an
Immense amount of unnecessary work.
He was speaking Of the omnibus
claim bill when that measure came be-
fore the senate. He called attention to
the fact that this measure is now
largely made up of claims dating back
to the civil war era. They need to be
investigated in great detail for fear Of
fraud. After the committee has done
it's difficult, burdensome and really
profitless task it is really the duty OF
the houses to inform themselves
about the situation, before making the
appropriations. Therefore, the proper
management of the vast volume of
claims would take a greater amount
of time than a legislative boldly ought
t, give to them.
The senator opined that congress
ought to devise better ways Of hand
ling such matters; to send them to
some proper and rightly equipped tri-
bunal where they could be tried on
their merits.
Senator Fulton of the claims COM
mittee explained that the committee in
the bill this year had tried to make
provision for Just such a disposal of
these cases in future, and hoped it
would be adopted, for he entirely
agreed with Senator Aldrich that it
was hardly fair to burden congress
with such details.
This years omnibus claim bill prob
ably will not become law; but 1T is
probable that in the near future a new
method of dealing with large classes