Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1910-06-08
LAND GRABBER TRICKS
Frauds by Which the Government
Is swindIed Out of Thou-
sands Of Acres.
OBSTACLES 9 2 TO SETTLEMENT J;
cattlemen Put Up Fences That
Practically Inclose Large
Tracts Of Public Domain.

-S~s.SSS--J
Tracts Of Public Domain.
There are thousands of easy-money
men in the west to-day who are op-
Grating skin games as hackneyed in
that section as is juggling the shells
and pea in Indiana, William Atherton
Du Puy says in the Indianapolis Star.
The object Of their operations is to
get from Uncle Sam land to which
they are not entitled. The same old
games have been worked for genera
lions.
Government lands are not highly
priced in the sections where they are
plentiful. The government is such an
indefinite proprietor that no man has
felt called upon to see that fraud is
not perpetrated. To obtain Illegal
title to land has been classed with
such ocular lapses of conscience as
that which cheats ones neighbor in q
horse trade or surreptitiously pnrloins
watermelons. The government, through
its agents, is thoroughly familiar with
these methods, and 1t is to prevent
them that much legislation is now
pending.
There is yet an empire to be saved
from unfair appropriation. The gov
eminent to-day owns land, exclusive Of
Alaska, greater in extent than all that
region east Of the Alleghenies upon
which dwell 30,0O0.O0O people. There
Is enough Of it to make twelve states
like New York, two like Texas or fifty
like Massachusetts. There are 100000
900 of acres Of it designated as coal
land and 30,0OO,OOO acres that may
be irrigated. There is, enough water
power on 1t to turn the spindles Of the
nation. present and future. It oc-
cupies the position with relation to the
public that was, held by the lands of
Kansas generation ago. The In
igenious methods Of Its wrongful ap.
preparation are many and interesting.
Great stockmen have much influence
in state and county government in
the west The states have the, author
ity to lease public land granted them
by the national government for such
purposes as the maintenance of schools
and institutions. Through the infiu.
ence Of certain wealthy men of the
ranches long strips of land are leased
or sold. These strips are in such
forms as to compare with the frame
of picture. That portion that would
go to make up the picture itself ID
still government land. The stockmen
have perfect right. obviously, to put
fences on the land they have bought
or leased. But in SO doing they In.
close in their pastures vast amounts
Of government land, which, according
to law. it Is unlawful to fence Thii
land ID practically Withdrawn from
other settlement, for the homesteadel
locating there would be cut of from
the world by the fences and harassed
beyond endurance by the cattleman
and his cowboys.
Another method of avoiding the let
ter Of the law in fencing government
land is to inclose it almost but not
quite. The fence around a field may
lack but foot of inclosing 1t and a
stout post may stand on either side Of
this gap. No horse or COW could
crowd through 1t. Yet the land IL
not inclosed by the fence.
The live stock companies also make
many filings on land through theiI
herders and cowboys. who take VI
homesteads of 100 acres each. The
homesteader is supposed to reside
upon the land to make proof for the
purpose of obtaining title. Where the
cowpunchers are on big ranch and
moving back and forth, they can, by
building small shack on 100 acres
make such pretense as to residence
as to render 1t difficult to cancel the
pending entry. In this way the com
panies are able to get title to large
tracts, or at least control them for
many years.
There are several transcontinental
railroad lines to which Congress ha.
given the alternate or odd sections
Of land for from twenty to forty
miles on each side of their tracks
This was given as an inducement t.
| the railroads to build into the desolate
country in early times, but the result
81 - s ~ land that Is worth rt,t
railroad The odd and even section,