The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1914-12-17
UNJUST TREATMENT OF PUBLIC
LAND STATES BY GOVERNMENT

and the interior department has squirm-
ed out of keeping its promise Of CO.
operation. The government has more
than once. kept the word OF promise
70 the scar and broken 1t to the hope.
There Is every ground to fear that It
would do so again.
The public land states should be sat
isfied with nothing less than payment
TO them OF an annual amount equal to
what the taxes on leased land would
be If the land were in private owner
ship, this payment to begin with the
first year when the land begins to
yield revenue to the government. All
restrictions as to the use to which the
states may put this money should be
removed. The government has no au-
thorfty to direct the use which states
shah make of their revenue Such
dictation savors more Of the treatment
given by centralized government to
it's provinces than OF the relation
which federal union bears to its SOW
erign. component states. The revenue
derived by the government alone from
leased land should be applied to rec
lamation Of arid land in the state
whence II comes. II temporarily di-
verted to some other state, 1t should
yields it, and strict provision should be
made to insure that this be done. The
leasing laws should be treated as con-
tract between congress and the public
land states, subject to change only
with the consent OF the states and
not at the will of congress alone.
II congress should refuse to recog-
nize fully the rights of the states In
some such manner, the states would
be justified in attacking by legal pro-
cedure the validity of the whole leas-
| ing system. They would have good
case. The act admitting Oregon to
the Union provides that this state "be.
and she Is hereby. received into the
Union on an equal footing with the
other states in all respects whatever,
The public land in states of the east,
middle west and south has been sold
and has thereby become subject to
state law and state taxation. With SO
| per cent OF its area excluded from its
civil jurisdiction and exempt from tax
alton, Oregon is not on an equal foot
| ing with those states. The act of adj
mission foabids Oregon to tax land OF
property Of the United States or to
interfere with the primary disposal
of the soil within the same by the
United States or with any regulations
congress may find necessary for Sc
curing the title in said soil to bona
fide purchasers thereof but this very
reference to bona fide purchasers prov
es that the policy of the government
then was to sell, not to lease, land.
Thus the state was led to expect that
| It would in a reasonable time be-
come full sovereign over its entire area
and on this understanding 1t accepted
the terms and entered the Union. BY
changing the conditions under which thu
state entered into the compact, congress
would release the state from moral obli-
CATION to observe 1T. The state could
maintain that, in all essentials, leasing
public land has the same effect as sale.
Tax exemption was intended to con-
tinue only until the land came into use
The only process then considered Of
bringing 1t into use was sale, there
fore sale alone was mentioned; had leass
then been contemplated, the state
would surely have contended that lease
should render public land taxable.