East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-09-07
JUDGE s. A. LOWELL
DELIVERS ADDRESS
PREDATORY LAND IN
TERESTS HIS TOPIC
Scores the Transportation Monopoly
and Allen Land Holdcrs-The Rail-
RAIDS Duty TO the Publlc-State
Possesses a Remedy-Speech De-
Iivered at Corvallis Saturday Night.

day in tented amphtheatre, crowd
ed with hundreds Of people, at the
All-Benton county school fair His
text was "Oregon Problems" and the
theme was large landholdings and ex-
cessivo railroad domination, which
were set forth as a menace to the
welfare of the state.
The Pendleton jurists speech made
a deep impression on the Audience.
He said:
Oregon presents unique situation
In civic economies, and problems con-
front her people which do not find
parallel in any other part of the
union.
She is not a new state. Another
year and she will usher in the second
half century of her statehood. She
possesses resources unsurpassed, and
possibly not equaled among the sis
terhood OF states, and yet in material
development she lags in the rear
rank.
The reasons are not far TO seek.
They are two-alien and excessive
land holdings, and selfish and nom
progressive transportation monopoly
In round numbers 100000 acres Of
her area are held under the grants
OF congress made in the decade from
1860 to 1870 to railroad and so-called
military wagon road companies, while
other vast tracts have been secured byI
the great lumber and cattle compan-
ies, and by railroad corporations
through the vicious lieu land act. 1t
is probably a conservative statement
to say that at least 100000 acres are
thus held within her boundaries. The
most OF this vast area is owned by
nonresident individuals and corpor-
ations. some OF whom are old world
capitalists.
The policy of substantially all
seems to be one OF nonuser. They
will neither sell these lands to set !
tiers nor develop them themselves.
These grants cross the state north,
south. east and west, like trails of
poisonous serpents, and the result has
been pail upon Development for
40 years.
The Railroad Situation.
The railroad situation is almost as
intolerable One vast corporation di-
rected from New York practically
dominates the transportation facill-
ties of the commonwealth, and for
years its profits within the state have
been so enormous that the best data
obtainable by the railroad commits
sion indicate an accumulated surplus
of $4,000, 900, and yet, despite the
long continued appeals lof the people,
lines are never extended in tempo
rary fear that some other company
is about to enter this preserve.
The money thus earned is spent in
railroad building elsewhere and the
result is that much of the coast
counties and an imperial expanse in
central and southeastern Oregon, to-
gether considerably greater in extent
than the state of Pennsylvania. are
untouched by rails-re-
gions which, when once opened up by
adequate transportation facilities
will develop by leaps and bounds, un-
til they can easily support 5,OOO,OOO
people,
It may be said that the field of
is open but such is not
the fact. The truth is that the great S
lines control the money ;
markets of the east, and were a new q
to attempt construction in I
This territory It would find the banks I
closed against it and no sale for its
bonds could be found. The west to-
day Is seemingly as absolutely par /
,eled out among the transcontinental S
railway magnates as was the old a
world among the lords of feudal c
lges. There Is occasional apparent 7
'ivalry as 1t this time, but it usually a
ends in peace and another division of a
iomain. S
This state of affairs cannot be per- t
nitted to continue and its elmna- t
ion calls for the serious considera- v
ion Of every thinking man within a
he confines of oregon. Unless a +
emedy is found, another so years h
will witness the vast natural resour- n
'es of this magnificent state either s.
It'll undeveloped, or the objects of j
exploitation by alien owners, and our I
,eople will be crushed under the dou- n
lie curse Of permanent landlordism t
md railroad domination. 4.
Old Worlds Struggle p
The people of the old world have h
'een struggling for centuries against II
he land system which early mon II
rchial ideas fastened upon them, and II