Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1910-02-23

80 rl6IsnO J, 1VOe
Who are the Land Looters7
Ask one man what conservation
is and he tells you it is a kid-glove
fad. Ask the next man and he tells
you it is a job for the iron law in
side the kid-glove-that from being
a drawing room INSTRUMENTATION
has become life and death strug-
gle out in the open for right or
wrong; that, in fact, one man was
shot to death over it. with a "hung
up" jury that refuses to convict
and ought to have been hanged.
It is an impracticable scheme to
keep the settler from developing
natural resources-says one side.
It is rallying cry to keep the pre-
datory interests from fencing nat
ural resources off for the settler
says the other side. What are the
facts? Has anybody tried to fence
natural resources off from the gen.
eral average citizen? What is all
this vague talk about land loot?
Who is doing the looting? What
are they footing? Where and how?
Come down off the astral plane of
vague superiority and give us facts
that the average intelligence can
grasp and nail fast!
Nobody denies that every citizen
over twenty-one years of age has a
right to a hundred and sixty acres
of free homestead as long as the
free land lasts. and three hundred
and twenty acres of desert land.
and one hundred and sixty acres of
coal land at the legal price or six
hundred and forty acres if he has
SIS, 900 to expend on them-long as
the land lasts and will go around.
On this, Conservationists and Anti
Conservationists are in perfect
agreement.
The point is-if one man wants
260. 900 acres of free land-which
was what Mr.. Yard Of Plumas
County, California, tried to Obtain
is he to get it? If one company
wants not 800 acres of coal land
but $4,000 acres at $3.50 an acre
under the Timber and Stone Act
worth on the market 5000 al
acre-as the Colorado Iron and Fue
Company obtained big holdings
wants this land from the Public
Domain, legally if possible but i
impossible. then i1legally-is tn
7 company to be permitted to get it
In the early days when there was n
. local traffic, it was the will of tn
settlers and the wisdom of Congress
that the railroads should be grant
ed non-mineral lands to enable then
= to build into sparsely settled dis
c tricts; but the point is-are the
under this act to patent-as tn
Southern Pacific tried to patent
thousands and hundreds of thous
e ands of acres of mineral lands
y the eviction of old miners, VIII
IS have been making living on thos
4 lands for thirty years? Havin
taken illegal possession of certai
: coal lands-as one company did
J. Southern Colorado-are they to
j. allowed to shoot down in cold bloc
Y the Federal officer sent from WASH
n ington? 1t was the wisdom {
Congress that the humblest citize
who could scrape money togethe
J. should be facilitated in buying Gu
Re lands; but are big companies to (
# allowed to bring humble citizens
10 by the train load, 'dummies' pal
- 500 to $500 each, to file on CO,
" lands for the big corporations? Ar
1t having obtained hundreds of thou
n ands of acres of coal lands-as OF
d big melting company has obtaine
y them are they to be left undi
: turbed in possession of their illeg
i holdings? 1t was the wisdom .
Congress that the settler shou]
have free access for his persons
r use to the National Forests; b,
t the point is-are the big compani'
under cover of that settlers rigl
- to be allowed to send that settler
Il to take (steal?) hundreds of thou
It ands of feet of lumber every We.
}; from the National Forests, as OF
J. big smelling company of Montar
! did? These are but few-a vel
~ few-of the questions that have p,
J. the Conservationists and the Ant
n Conservationists at daggers draw
IS and have torn party lines to tatte
+ all through the West and the Mi
:, die West. These are the real poin
~ that the Senate must either smoth'
% or uncover in the investigate
If which has been undertaken.-Fro
N "Shall the Land Looters Escape,
. in the March Technical World Ma,