Norwich bulletin., 1911-07-27


 1t 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 nel of Controller bay or it's shores or upland to any one railroad. This pro- pose now to show.
 The only practicable method for se- curing title from the government in such tract as this after its elimina- tion is by the use of what Is called "soldiers' additional homestead right" evidenced by scrip. The statutory linn itations upon this method of acquiring title are threefeld:
 First.-No more than 16O 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 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- gation company and every other per son is prevented from locating more than 16O acres in one body. By tho 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 a tract of forty acres. This would prevent the possibility of any ing an entire tract like that of F, 800 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 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- propriation a frontage aggregating two and three-quarter miles and so distributed along the shore in front ages of eighty rods as to make cer- tain of 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 quarter of a mile, or 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- cator or in the interest of any com pany for whom locators are acting they take away the motive for the ac- quisition of land and frontage merely for the purpose of excluding other companies and possible competitors and tend to confine locators to the ac- quisition of land to be profitable in it's use.
 Since the executive order was ise sued. Oct. 2S. 1910, there have been four locations under soldiers scrip. three of them of 1eO 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 shall assume they can be passed to valid patent.
 Frontage Left Open.
 Of the shore frontage unlocated 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 ee-quarter miles of front age distributed in eleven eightyrod 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 12,800 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 monopoly in the Controller Bay company or any one else. The dis tance from the dry land1. e., the shore land-the line of high water mark-to the line of low water mark is between two and three miles. and the distance to deeper water is about a mile far 1her, making it necessary, if harbor is to be reached and used. to con struct viaduct or trestle three or four miles long from the shore to the chan nel. This tidal fiat is owned by the United States. and the acquisition un- der the public land laws of tracts. on