Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1910-06-03
LAND GRABBER TRICKS.
Frauds by Which the Government
Is SwindIed Out of Thou.
sands of Acres.
OBSTACLES TO SETTLEMENT.
Cattlemen Put Up Fences That
Practically Inclose Large
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 Anterior
Du Puy says in the indianapolis Star.
The object of their operations is to
get from Uncle Sam iand TO which
they are not entitled. The same old
games have been worked for genera
tons.
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 and has been classed with
such ~jocular lapses of conscience as
that which cheats ones neighbor in a
horse trade or surreptitiously purloins
watermelons. The government, through
its agents, is thoroughly familiar with
these methods, and it 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 Alleghcnies upon
which dwell 10000, 900 people. There
is enough of it to make twelve states
like New York, two like Texas or fifty
like Massachusetts. There are 0 ,00O,.
900 of acres Of it designated as coal
land and 80, 900, 900 acres that may
be irrigated. There is enough water
power on it to turn the spindles of the
nation, present and future. 1t oc-
cupies the position with relation to the
public hat was held by the lands OF
Kansas a generation ago. The IN
geniOuS 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 inf1u
ence of certain wealthy men Of the
ranches long strips Of land are LEASED
or sold. These strips are in suct
forms as to compare with the frame
| of a picture. That portion that would
go to make up the picture itself l!
| still government land. The stockmeI
have a perfect right. obviously, to pu
fences on the land they have bough
-, 1or,oJ DIT i, ca INinO fhDv IN
| close in their pastures vast amount
of government land, which, according
to law, it is unlawful to fence. This
LAND is practically withdrawn from
other settlement, for the homesteadel
locating there would be cut off from
the world by the fences n harasset
| beyond endurance by the cattlemaI
and his cowboys.
Another method of avoiding the let
ter of the law in fencing government
land is to inclose it almost but no
quite. The fence around a field may
lack but a foot of incloslrg it and {
stout post may stand on either side o
this gap. No horse or COW coult
crowd through it. Yet the Ian il
not inclosed by the fence.
The live stock companies also max
many filings on land through thei
herders and cowboys, who take VI
homesteads of 1GO acres each. Tn
homesteader is supposed to resid'
upon the land to make proof for thu
purpose of obtaining title. Where tn
cowpunchers are on a big ranch ant
moving back and forth, they can, b!
building a small shack on 100 acres
make such pretense as to residence
as to render it difficult to cancel TIL
pending entry. In this a the com
ranies are able to get title to larS'
tracts, or at least control them TO
many years.
There are several transcontinenta
railroad lines to which Congress ma
given the alternate or d sections
Of land for from twenty to tort.
miles on each side Of their tracks
This was given as an inGucement t.
the railroads to build into the desolat'
country in early times. but the resul
of it has beer the loss of title to tn
government of land that IS Wortl
MANY times the cost Of building tn
railroad. The odd and even section
are so laid out that the railroad com
panies' grants are as the black space
on a checker board, the intervening
red spaces being government lano
Cattle companies purchase the odd see
lions from the railroads and run thei
fences to inclo5e vast areas, the renee
crossing from one odd section to ar
other at the points where these bare
lv touch, as do the diagonal square
on the checker board. In this way tn
fences. strictly speaking. are on tn
land purchased from the railroads., bu
an equal amount of government Ian
is likewise inclosed in the pastures
The Supreme Court has held that thl
does not violate the law. Yet it
practically impossible for the genera
public to get at even sections, n tn
cattlemen are getting as much benz
fit from them as though they were az
tually owned by them.