Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-08-03

Soldiers home ............... ~, IVY
State university .............. oo,VV
The selection of this vast area at
once suggested the necessity OF SUIT.
able body to handle these lands and
to care for the funds arising from the
sale and rental of the same, hence the
Board of University and School Lands
and the State Land department..
At the time of the states admission
and for some years thereafter, this
board had but little to do in the way OF
sales, rentals, or the investment OF
funds for the reason that the state
being sparsely settled, and government
land being accessible almost anywhere
in the state, there was no demand for
those belonging to this endowment.
Rapid development of the state, how
ever, soon took up all Of the available
homestead land after which the school
and institution lands became market
able with the result that today nearly
half of the original endowment has been
sold. The schools and institutions
named above now have contracts in
force representing over twenty-one and
a quarter millions of dollars, about
seven millions of which have been paid
in and now draw interest at either
four or five per cent, being invested in
municipal bonds, school bonds and in
first mortgage farm loans.
A wise provision in our constitution
provides that none of these lands can
be sold at less than ten dollars per
acre, nor can any be sold that are
known to be coal-bearing, thereby guar
anteeing the state and her institutions
against fraudulent sales or the dis
position of this vast legacy at less than
its real value.
The Board OF University and School
Lands is made up as follows:
John Burke, governor-Chairman.
E. J. Taylor, state superintendent
Secretary.
D. K. Brightbill- State auditor.
P. D. Norton-Secretary of state.
Andrew Miller, Attorney general.
Alex. ald-Commissioner of
university and school lands.
This board holds regular meetings the
last Thursday of each month and special
meetings as occasion demands, the
same being held in the office of the
commissioner in the capitol.
As often as conditions will war
rant the Board of University and
School Lands authorizes sales of Ger
tain of these lands in one or more of
the forty-nine counties of the state
Such sales are by public auction, the
minimum bid being ten dollars per
acre. Contracts run for a period of
twenty years-one- fifth being payable at
time of sale, balance in four equal in
stallments, one payable every FIVE
years thereafter, with interest at six
per cent per annum, payable in adj
vance. A constitutional amendment
which became law at the last legisla-
tive session, makes it possible for con-
tract holder to pay up his contract in
full and secure patent from the state
after the contract has been in force |
FIVE years, such payment to be made on
or about January !, and there must al
50 be paid at that time years interest
in advance
Besides the revenue from sales and |
interest this department annually COL
lects thousands of dollars from the |
rentals of the lands mentioned above.
Public leasings are held once a year in |
each county, when these lands are
leased to the highest bidder, usually for
hay and grazing purposes only, though
few tracts in the extreme eastern part
of the state which became broken years
ago.. are leased for the purpose of cul-
tivation. The leases issued now bring
from 81 per quarter section upwards,
depending upon the demand for hay
lands in the locality where the leasing
is being held. The leases are made for
either one year or FIVE, as the applicant
desires, and the rental is payable an
nually in advance.
North Dakota is indeed fortunate in
being. thus endowed, and careful and
judicious investment of this vast legacy
will insure her public schools and those
other institutions mentioned above a
perpetual fund equaled in but few if
any states in the union.
The State Land department is will
ing at all times to furnish interested
parties with copies of its biennial re-
ports, copies of the laws relating to
school and institution lands, or with
literature relative to future sales.
NORTH DAKOTA ENFoRcEMENr
LEAGUE
To the friends of temperance
l have calls from fifty places ask.
Ing me to come and close I'D blind
pigs. These REQUESTS indicate a Sroa%