East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1909-11-29

The annual report to the president
of Hon. Richard A. Ballinger, Sec
retary of the interior, has been made
public, and extracts from it are given
below:
This report covers a portion Of the
time under the administration of my
predecessor, Mr.. Garfield, who, by
his earnest and disnterested services.
contributed greatly to the advance
ment of the department in organiza-
ton and efficiency of administration.
Public Lands.
The proper use and disposition OF
the public lands have been questions
involving no little legislative as we'll
as administrative difrcuIty from the
l'beginning of their history. They
were, during the earliest administra-
| tions, treated at a national asset for
the liquidation of the public debt and
as a source of reward for our SOL
diers and sailors. Not until the dis
covery of gold on the Pacific slope
did the policy change for one of ex-
ploitation, by which our citizens were
encouraged to develop the mineral
and agricultural resources of the pub
lie domain on condition of receiving
limited areas at a nominal cost. For
similar reasons, railway and wagon
road grants were literally donated by
| congress in order to add facilities for
| opening up of these almost inacces-
| sible regions.
The railway grants generally were
| limited to nonmineral lands, except
such as contained coal and iron,
which later minerals were taken to be
essential to railroad construction and
operation. New states, were, when
| admitted, literally endowed with
public lands for school and other pur-
poses; so that, out of a public do
main in 1860 of 1865, ,911,2SS acres
| ALASKA then not belonging to the
United States), we now have only
about 7S1,354,0S1 acres, confined
largely to the mountain ranges and
the arid and semiarid plains. except
lands within some of the Indian res
ervations and the S6S,035,975 acres
of undisposed of land in Alaska.
All of the principal land statutes
were enacted over twenty-five years
ago; the homestead act, the pre-emp-
ton and the timber-culture act. the
coal-land. and the mining acts for
the aid of the industrious prospector,
were among the earlier acts of this
nature.
Public Domain Prey of Pirates.
The liberal and rapid disposition of
the public lands under these statutes
and the lax methods of administration
which for a long time prevailed nat
urally provoked the feeling that the
public domain was legitimate prey
for the INSCRIPTIONS and that it was
no crime to violate or circumvent the
land laws. It IS to be regretted that
we. as q nation, We're SO tardy to real
ize the Importance of preventing so
/ large measure of our natural re-
sources passing into the hands of land
pirates and spectators, with no view
to development looking to the nation
al welfare. It may be safely said that
millions of acres of timber and other
lands have been unlawfully obtained,
and It is also true that actions to re-
cover such lands have in most in
stances long since been barred by the
statute of limitations. The principal
awakening to our wasteful course
came under your predecessors ad-
ministration. The bold and vigorous
prosecutions of land frauds, through
Secretaries Hitchcock and Garfield
have restored salutary respect for
the law and the public mind has
rapidly grasped the Importance of
safeguarding the further disposition
Of our natural resources in the pub
lie good as against private greed.
Notwithstanding this. 1t is necessary
to continue with utmost vigor, through
all available sources. the securing OF
information of violations of the pub
lie land laws and to follow such viola
tions with rigid prosecutions.
In this present policy of. conserving
the natural resources of the public
domain. while development is the
keynote, the best thought of the day
is not that development shall be bS
national agencies. but that wise utili.
zation shall be secured through pri.
laNate enterprise under national su.
pervision and control Therefore. n
material progress is to be made II
securing the best use of our remain.
ing public lands. congress must b,