Perth Amboy evening news., 1911-07-27

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 It's shores or
upland to any one railroad. This l pro-
pose now TO show,
The only practicable method for Sc
curing title from the government in
such a tract as this after It's ellmina-
ton Is by the use Of what Is called
soldiers additional homestead right
evidenced by scrip. The statutory lin
itations upon this method Of acquiring
title 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 naYigabie 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 100 rods along the shore of any
1avigable water, and along such, shore
i 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 nayigable waters
within said district,
Under the first Limitation the navl-
cation company and every other per
son is prevented from locating more
than 1G0 acres in one body, BY the
construction Of the land department,
as shown in the record, this requires
a separation between any two entries
by the same person or in the same in
terest of a 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 q
greater frontage than half q mile and
requires that between that and the
next claim taken up there shall be a
frontage reserved to the public and
kept In public control Of a quarter Of
q 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 q public frontage Of this width
having all the advantage that any pri-
vate 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 a 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 n To-
Gator or in the interest Of any com-
pany for whom locators are acting
they take away the motive for the &C.
QUESTION of land and frontage merely
for the purpose Of excluding other
companies and possible competitors
tend to confine lochtors to the ac-
QUESTION Of land to be profitable In Its
use.
Since the executive order was is-
sued, Oct. %, 1910. there have been
four locations under soldiers Scrip,
three Of them Of 100 rods each along
the bay, separated by two divisions
Of eighty rods. l 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 l shall
assume they can be passed to valid
patent