The Glasgow courier., 1916-05-19
REJECT FILINGS
ON STATE LAND
Bill Pending in Congress to Set
tie Controversy. ="
SCHOOL FUNDS AFFECTED
Land Office Turns Down Filings Of
Settlers. States Position
Defined.

The hundreds of people in this part
of the state who filed on the state land
recently will be interested in an ar
ticle which appeared in this morn
ing's Helena Record Herald. The
article follows.
Taking advantage of legal tan
gle apparently placing in jeopardy
state lands yielding perpetual in
come of from $5,00O,000 to $6,000,-
600 to the schools of Montana, pro-
fessfonal locators, it is charged, are
placing hundreds of settlers upon
the states reserve of half million
acres in the northern part of Sher-
idan and Valley counties. A bill is
now pending in congress, however, to
straighten this tangle and when it
passes the claimants will be elected.
The state court of Washington held
that state could not relinquish un-
surveyed school land within forest re-
serves and take lands in lieu of it
lying outside the reserve, unless it
received for the relinquished lands the
price fixed in the constitution. The
general land Office has always held
that state grant did not attach un-
til the land was identified by gov
ernment survey. It was under this
construction that the exchanges were
made in Montana and the state re-
ceived the lieu lands in northern Mon
tana.
Because of the decision in the state
of Washington, the general land Of
fee has declined to issue patents to
lieu lands until the point has been
passed upon by the supreme court of
the United States, or until it has been
cleared up by appropriate legislation.
Bills are now pending in congress pro-
viding for the adjudication of state
selections, and the state land board
has adopted resolutions urging their
passage.
The position Of the state land board
is set forth in the following state
ment made by Sidney Miller, register
of the state land office:
"The movement in the northeastern
part of the state by settlers going
upon state lands is the result of a
mistaken idea on the part of the set
tiers, aided and abetted by profess
sional locators, who are working for
fee. These lands were selected by
the state as indemnity school lands,
in lieu of school lands that the state
loses by reason of the creation of the
national forest reserves. It was con-
sidered better policy, both from the
federal and state view point, to per-
nit the federal authorities to have
absolute jurisdiction in the admins
tration of the national forest reserves.
The state accordingly relinquished the
unsurveyed school land in these re-
serves that for the most part are
broken and mountainous, and of little
value, and selected in lieu thereof de-
sirable agricultural land. 1t was a
good trade for the state.
1.-THE question that has been raised
by these locators, and their attorneys,
is as to the authority Of the state to
relinquish such lands within the ma
tional forest reserves that would
when surveyed, be school lands, and
their position is based upon decision
of local court in the state of Wash
ington, and state court in California
and Idaho. 50 -
"These settlers have offered their
filings at the local Offices, and the
same have been rejected. To keep their
filings alive they have made appeal
to the commissioner of the general
land Office at Washington, who in
turn has sustained the register and
receiver in rejecting their applica-
tions. In some cases appeal has been
taken to the secretary of the interior,
in the meantime these applicants,
through their attorneys, have petit
toned the state board of land COM
missioners to waive its rights to these
selections that they might perfect
their claim, but the board does not
take kindly to these petitions.
"In the Scobey district, where bona
fide settlement was made upon the
lands withdrawn, under the applica-
ton of the state for survey and such
settlement was continued in good
faith, with substantial improvements,
the state land board, has waived it's
rights, and in this district alone, more
than 200 claimants have been mmo-