, 1908-01-10
CARBON COUNTY OBJECTIONS.

The Republican recently asked the
Rawlins Republican TO state explicitly
its objections to the Mondell purchase
bill, and that paper replies:
Our opposition 10 the bill providing
Tor the sale of land within railroad
grants may not be understood by Mr..
Chaplin from a car window view of the
Laramie plains, but If he will trail
across the Red desert from east to
stand why the minimum price of s1.25
is Objectionable. The railroad com
pany has, it is true, sold some land for
as much as Sl.25, but ninety per cent
of It from Rawlins west Tor one hun
dred miles that has beer sold at less
than one dollar, and as low as forty and
fifty cents. and vast quantities at sixty
and seventy cents. Now the railroad
company would not have done this II
they could have obtained more and
the average price would be much lie,
duced had it not been that purchasers
took into consideration the additional
land controlled by their purchases.
This may be a condition purely To-
cal to this section, but anyone can I'M
derstand that there will be a great deal
Of land in this part of the country that
will never pass into Individual owner,
] chin At a minimum, trriaA nf SI Ok m
acre. 1t is absolutely good for nothing
except grazing, and that only in the
winter months where there is snow on
the ground which is the only stock
water Afforded.
The price itself is not all. If it is
worth at sale S1.25 it is worth that
much for taxation purposes and no
stockman can afford TO retain his wi
ership for the benefit received"
In discussing Mr.. Mondells amend
ment TO the timber and stone act,
whereby it is made possible to pur'
chase rough, broken land unfit for az,
ricultural purposes under this act, Edi-
TOR Draper says
There is no question but that actu.
al timber and stone land is worth $3.50
an acre. So called fraud under the
timber and stone act has been largely
the result of stockmen taking up wa,
ter holes or pieces of land especially
fitted for their use. For small pieces
of land which had special value in that
regard the price of $3.50 was not col
sidered a big thing in the aggregate,
and this small piece of land might
have as much value by itself as If the
whole country for five miles around
were thrown in. The purpose of the
timber and stone law certainly never
was intended to aid in passing into pri.
yate ownership any considerable guam
tlty of land in any one section, as it
applies only to what might be termed
isolated cases outside of actually tim.
bered areas. Mr.. Mondell's bill is in
clude that class of land which has new
er been specifically included in any
land law and which could be obtained
only by stretching some law to cover
IL in case a particular piece of land
was desired for particular purposes,
generally for its value in its relation to
the grazing of livestock. Nor are Sc,
l~ections SO made confined to a railroad
land grant but this law applies to all
public land states and to all lands eX-
cept actually timbered, mineral, coal OF
irrigable lands, thus regulating the
transfer of title from the government
to the individual of more land than
probably all other LAND laws combined
from this time on. There is plenty of
land that will be taken up under this
law that is actually worth $3.50 an
acre just as has been the case in the
past"