Los Angeles herald., 1910-09-28
MR.. p1NcHoT's ADVICE

N IFFORD PINCHOT declared DeIoiS
- the mining congress that the gov
" ernment should attack the title of
the Southern Pacific railroad to the i'm
mense area including the oil lands in
California which it obtained by cor
ruption of congress, by sneaking riders
into bills making the grants whose
main parts show plainly that it was
never the intention to give to the rail-
road the minerals over which their
lines ran, and by false witness in the
courts supported by all the delays,
sophistries and technicalities that able
attorneys could conjure.
Mr.. Pinchot's blunt statement and
his possible intention to make it his
business to do something about the
matter may hurry the righting of a
wrong to the people of this state and
country that has few parallels even in
the history of our corporation-cor-
rupted government. The subsidy
granted to the Atlantic & Pacific, the
Texas Pacific and their successor, the
Southern Pacific, was enormous and
plunderous under the most considerate
Interpretation that can be put upon the
acts of congress. It will amount to
billions of dollars, perhaps, if the rail-
road is permitted to get away with its
own Interpretation of the corruptly-
secured bargains.
Would any court now hold that the
stupendous increment in and under
these lands, worth a thousandfold the
original grant, was ever intended by
congress to be taken away from the
people and put into the hands of pri-
vate individuals? 1t may well be
doubted The richss here involved
rivaling the wealth of Midas, bear no
relation to the purpose for which the
grant was made-the fair remunera-
ton of a company for its enterprise in
building a railroad.
The oil lands are the odd sections in
the primary and indemnity limits of the
railroad grant in Kern county. They
are worth thousands of dollars an
acre. They are mineral lands and not
coal or iron lands. They were granted
to aid in the construction of the rail-
road. They were granted for distribu-
ton to settlers. They were not granted
to enrich few individuals who control
the destinies of a quasi-public corpora
ton.
But while the original grants specific
ally exempted minerals the railroad
now claims them under those grants.
Notwithstanding it was provided that
the lands should be sold to settlers for
a nominal sum, the company has ig-
nored the provision and expects to take
from underneath them wealth that only
the imagination can estimate. Let any
bona fide settler now try to secure
some Of these properties that were sup
posed to be sold for $3.50 an acre to en-
population and enterprise along
the line of the roads and see what sue
cess he will have.
And even this does not state the
worst of the case as it relates to the
matter Of justice and equity. BY the
possession of 'its" lands in the Kern
field the Southern Pacific can drill into
the ground and by draining off the oil
for miles around rob others who have
invested heavily in an industry that
has wonderfully enriched and pros
pered California.
The title of the Southern Pacific COM
pany to the Kern county properties
seems to be full of holes. What court
decisions have been rendered in con-
nection Herewith certainly do not
the corporations position
before the law. The supreme court, 1t
would seem, could be convinced beyond
the chance of cavil that the company
has held the lands in bad faith and has
not fulfilled the letter or spirit Of the
grants under which they were secured.
If the matter of public policy should
enter into the litigation there must be
only one way of ruling on 1t, for surely
it is grossly unfair and dangerous that
the present situation should exist.
Altogether it would appear that there
is good fighting ground for the govern
ment in an attempt to recover the vast
wealth held by corporation consisting
of an increment no congress ever in
tended to give away, and the depart
ment of justice should lose no time fin
taking the matter into court.