Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-07-27

there must be q terminal town on the
shore Of Controller bay, and / was
therefore glad and anxious to throw
it open to entry and settlement as 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 is called
soldiers additional homestead right"
evidenced by scrip. The statutory lin
itauons upon this method of acquiring
title are threefold:
First-No more than 16O acres can
be entered in any single body by such
scrip.
Second--No location Of scrip along
any navigabie 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 $50 rods along the shore OF any
navigable water, and along such shore
a 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 160 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 a
greater frontage than half 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
a mile. The consequence is that in
the seven miles of the frontage of this
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 APP
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-
vate frontage can have. In other
words, If z tract with a half mile
frontage is located at a particularly
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 one To-
Gator or in the interest of any com
pauy 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 &C
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. / 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.
OF the shore frontage INDICATED
which may be appropriated by scrip
there remain six frontages Of $50 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
% reach high water mark on Control
er bay and there to acquire tracts
Tor terminals. OF the 1880 acres the
entries in area have covered only 500 |
acres, and all the rest is available for !
,crip location under the provisions of |
he act.
There is a third reason why the 1
opening Of this tract to settlement and /
limited private appropriations cannot |
cad TO a monopoly In the Controller |
Bay company or any one else. The dis |
ance from the dry land-i- G.. the shore /
and-the line OF high water mark-to /
he line OF low water mark is between /
wo and three miles, and the distance 1
n deprear water is q boflf a mile far