The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-07-28

| there must be terminal town on tha
! shore of Controller bay, and | was
therefore glad and anxious To throw
| ii open to eutry aud settlement rs one
/ important step In encouraging railroad
! enterprise. was certain that congress
had provided in the statutes affecting
the entry and settlement of land in
Alaska limitations which would pre-
| vent the possibility of the exclusive
| appropriation of the harbor and chan.
mel Of Controller bay or its shores or
upland to any one railroad. This pro.
pose now to show.
! The only practicable method for Sc.
curing title from the government in
such a tract as this after its elimina.
! ton is by the use Of what il called
soldiers additional homestead right"
evidenced by scrip. The statutory linn
itations upon this method of acquiring
.itle are threefold:
First.-No more than 100 acres can
be entered in any single body by such
scrip.
Second.-No location of scrip along
any navigable waters can be made
within the distance of eighty rods of
any lands along such waters, and no
entry can be allowed extending more
than 160 rods along the shore of any
navigable water, and along such shore
space Of at least eighty rods must be
reserved from entry between all such
claims.
Third.-Nothing in the act contained
is to be construed to authorize entries
to be made or title to be acquired to
the shore of any navigable waters
within said district.
Under the first limitation the navi.
cation company and every other per.
son is prevented from locating more
than 100 acres in one body. By the
construction of the land department,
as shown in the record. this requires
separation between any two entries
by the same person or in the same in
terest of tract Of forty acres. This
would prevent the possibility of any
one person or any one interest acquir.
ing an entire tract like that of 1880
acres.
Frontage Held by Government.
The second limitation is important
in that it prevents the entry of claims
at any point on the shore having a
greater frontage than half a mile and
requires that between that and the
next claim taken up there shall be
frontage reserved to the public and
kept in public control of a quarter of
a mile. The consequence is that in
the seven miles Of the frontage of this
eliminated tract there must be reserv-
ed for government control and use and
such disposition as congress may see
fit to make and free from private ap-
preparation a frontage aggregating
two and three-quarter miles and so
distributed along the shore in front
ages of eighty rods as to make GER
tain Of a public frontage of this width
having all the advantage that any pri-
yate frontage can have. In other
words, if a tract with a half mile
frontage is located at a particularly
advantageous place with reference to
the harbor then on each side of that
frontage must be reserved to the pub
lie a frontage Of a quarter Of mile.
or a half mile in all, for public uses
These two restrictions necessarily
prevent a monopoly of land abutting
on the shore, and as they necessarily
prevent a monopoly by any one To-
Gator or in the interest Of any COM
pany for whom locators are acting
they take away the motive for the ac-
QUESTION of land and frontage merely
for the purpose of excluding other
companies and possible competitors
and tend to confine locators to the ac-
QUESTION of land to be profitable in its
use.
Since the executive order was is
sued, Oct 2S, 1910 there have been
four locations under soldiers scrip,
three of them of 160 rods each along
the bay, separated by two divisions
of eighty rods. / shall assume that
all of them are in the interest of the
Controller Railway and Navigation
company. None Of them has been ap-
proved or passed to patent, but / shall
assume they can be passed to valid
patent.
Frontage Left Open.
VI CQ6 SuOre lTOuluSe uIlOSdleu
which may be appropriated by scrip
there remain six frontages of 160 rods
each on the shore of the tract opened
by the executive order facing the bay
and channel and in addition at least
two and three-quarter miles of front
age distributed in eleven eighty-rod
strips, subject to public use and the
disposition Of congress. There is thus
ample room for many other railroads
to reach high water mark on Control
Ter bay and there to acquire tracts
for terminals. OF the 12,900 acres the
entries in area have covered only 800
acres, and all the rest is available for
scrip location under the provisions of
the act.
There is a third reason why the
opening of this tract to settlement and
limited private appropriations cannot
lead to a monopoly in the Controller
Bay company or any one else. The dis