Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-09-24

sistible attraction and settlers
swarmed westward. Railroads were
needed, and land grants on gigan-
tic scale made railroads possible
Under this system endless miles of
wilderness became one of the worlds
greatest producing areas and the
home of millions of industrious and
prosperous people.
The change in conditions was not
attended by change in the laws.
There was continuance of the pol
Icy Of treating public land as Of lit
tie or no value, to be given, or at
best sold cheaply, to those who ap-
piled for it, Under these antiquat-
ed laws petty frauds and gigantic
swindles came into existence and
flourished nightly. All attempts to
remedy the evil, to adjust the laws
to the new conditions, were fought
by the repl esentatives of those who
were making money by processes
which were In fact the equivalent of
robbery Of the American people. All
efforts to punish offenders were
blocked and delayed, in spite of the
courage and the fidelity of such men
as the late Ethan Allen Hitchcock,
until the prosecution of land frauds
cases has come to be almost farce.
Last year the General Land Office
reported the United States (the AM
erican people) as the owner of 1884,
1926 acres of land areas unap-
propriated and unreserved. This
includes Alaska's 36S,021, 500 unsur-
veyed acres. Leaving out the Alaska
area and the appropriated and re-
served areas of the country proper
it appears that the United States is
now the proprietor of 386,873,787
acres of the least aluable land out
of an original possession of 1,441 1885,
100 acres. Out of this 226,690, 1898
cares as "unsurveyed. Very little
farming land remains for distribu-
tion. Much the larger part of the
timber land has been either distri-
buted or included in the national
forests. The mineral resources of
the unseurveyed regions are either
little known or quite unknown
Naturally States like Montana,
Wyoming, and Nevada, in which
there are still considerable areas of
public land, desire a continuance of
the old system as an inducement to
settlers. The people of such States
are vigorously indignant because the
national forests include tracts on
which there are no trees and which
are suitable for farming. The quar-
rels over lands in Alaska suggest
the probability of other quarrels to
come as a result of new discoveries
in regions about which little or moth
ing is now known. It is, certainly
possible that there are other mineral
deposits of great value in that corn
er Of our possessions. There are for
ests' Of size and value and there is
more land suitable for cultivation
than is generally supposed. It may
be we'll enough to encourage settle
ment by offering the farming lands
on generous terms. but there should
be conservation of the timber and the
mineral lands.
The gift or the bargain sale of
highly valuable forest and mineral
lands for the enrichment of the few
by the careless liberality of the many
is now national folly. Every possible
acre of our public land should be re-
served until by proper survey fair
valuation can be determined and a
fair price set on the property. About
three-parters of the original nation
al holding has passed into private
hands. A considerable percentage
of the whole has undoubtedly been
acquired by processes of doubtful
legality, and much has been acquir-
ed by glaring fraud. For what re-
mains as national property new laws
should be devised in the interest of
the present owners, the people of the
United States.
THE COST OF BAD ROADS.