The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-09
THE PHILIPPINE LAND SALE.

Hllippiue MINUS anu sugar, ~
besides an explanation of number of
points in controversy. some direct local
illusions that will make it interesting
reading hereabours.
Accompanying this editorial we have
u letter from Mr. Harold NJ. Pitt, well
known in business circles here by rca.
son Of his having been number OF
years the representative of Dun s Com.
mercial Agency in this city. Mr.. Pitt
volunteered as a soldier in the Philip
pine war, and after his discharge a"ed
in Manila, where he is we'll established
in business
We have from him the extract re.
with, and also letter on the same
subject. In this letter Mr., Pitt says
that there is no evidence tending to
show that the parties who purchased
the Mindoro estate from the Govern
ment are connected with the sugar
trust This, however. we believe was
pretty thoroughly established in the
Congressional controversy over this
purchase, Mr., Pitt explains that the
sale was made to Mr.. Il. l.. Poole, and
that of the total area purchased, being
$4,000 acres, 500 acres were transferred
TO corporation known as the Mindoro
Development Company The balance of
the land is still held by Nh Poole per
sonally, says Mr.. Pitt. and the plan of
operation is to allot certain areas to
Filipinos who will work the same and
give them opportunity TO acquire it,
The company will construct mill and
install machinery and then purchase
the cane from the individual growers.
The connection of this Mindoro De.
velopment Company with the sugar
trust has been pretty fully brought
out heretofore in the discussion of this
question. The sugar trust has the same
clutch upon that company that it has
upon the local sugar beet combines of
Utah, Idaho, and Colorado.
Mr.. Pitt thinks that there has been
some misapprehension on our part in
regard to the purchase of the friar
lands, He explains that these lands
were held in various parts of the isl
ands. some In populated districts where
the land was high in value, and some
in more remote parts whore the land
was unoccupied and correspondingly
low in price. The Mlndoro lands are
of the latter character, and he shows
that whereas the average price of all
the lands purchased from the friars was
$500 per acre, this particular Mindoro
tract was valued at very much less than
the average price.
Referring to the fact that the law
governing the sale of public lands III
the Philippines prohibits requirement
by corporation or association of more
than one thousand hectares Cor a little
less than twenty-five hundred acres)
he says that this limitation should not
apply to the lands purchased from the
friars, since those lands were privately
owned and could have been sold by the
frlars without any restrictions what
ever. This of course is true, as long
as the lands were held by the friars;
but after they were purchased by the
Government we hold that they were
subject to the same limitations as 10
price and quantity to be disposed of
as the other public lands; and when
the Government acquired title TO the
friar lands then those lands were, as
we consider, on precisely the same
basis as other public lands. and there
is no reason why the limitations as to
holdings and value should be held as
not applicable TO them. OF course the
Government could have made laws and
regulations for the disposal of these
friar lands on a different basis from
that applied to the other public do,
main in the archipelago, but Congress
lations, restrictions and limitations ap-
piled, in fact and in law, to those friar
lands after they became public domain
precisely the same as to other lands of
the public domain. This is the real
glst of the whole controversy; and it is
clear, we think, that Attorney General
Wickersham was wrong in holding
otherwise. The failure of Congress to
make different laws with respect 10
these friar lands from the laws gov
erning the public domain generally, as
we said, leaves those lands in the same
class as other land owned by the pub
lie, and it was incompetent for Attor-
ney General Wickersham to assume
the role Of legislator and undertake to
put them out of that classification. The
fact that Congress could have done so
does not Ill any way imply that the
Attorney General could do the same |
On the contrary, it is really restric-
tion upon him from doing anything Of
the kind, because the lack of such
separate legislation leaves the fair
construction that Congress intended to
have the same law, rules, and regula-
tions apply to those lands as to the
other portions of the public domain
Otherwise it would have enacted diff |
ferent laws for them.
Undoubtedly it would be for the in.
terest Of the Philippine Islands, of all
the people there. and of American cap-
A.l