The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-02-17
SERVICE FIGHTING
m. p. an $4,000 600 SUIT

broad public policy would lot justify
passing title to the Northern Pacific,
but that some other remedial legis-
lation should be granted them in
stead of giving them title to these
$30,000,0 600 of forest lands. Or, Der
haps, a solution might be found in
some other way, such as by giving
them a solid body of land elsewhere
instead of going into our national
forests and checkerboarding two ad-
| ditional strips 20 miles wide. They
might be given a consolidated tract
of land somewhat equivalent in area
| and value, SO there would not be such
a large forest are destroyed and so
that the government at least would
have half of the total area involved
within the national forests as a con-
solidated body instead of it being
checkerboarded by railroad lands"
Mr.. Byrnes: would you hope to
secure by sending examiners up into
not now know"
Mr.. Sherman: I'VE hope to secure
a considerable amount of additional
information. We would be able to
show what actual losses the Northern
Pacific sustained through the min
eral classification. For example,
within their primary limits they were
not entitled to secure patent to such
odd sections as might be classified
as mineral. This classification was
made hastily and the results were
greatly to the advantage of the Nor
thern Pacific railroad. In many
places, generally speaking, every
thing that was barren or had no tim
Der on it was classified as mineral.
For lands so classified the railroad
was privileged to go out into the in
demnity strip and select valuable
timber lands. AS a matter of fact,
within a considerable part of the
primary limits the lands so classified
as mineral were not mineral in fact.
Had the Northern Pacific secured
title to them, they would have Sc
cured very little of value.
Instead of securing title to these
rough and valueless lands, they have
secured title to a smaller area of sell
ected lands within the indemnity
limits already, but they have not Sc
cured title to as great an acreage as
the total of the odd sections within
the primary limits of their grant. By
this selection system, I believe, we
will be able to show that they have
secured a greater value than they
would have obtained had they Sc
cured the title to every odd section
within their primary limits. 1t is an
investigation of the value of lands
that were used as base lands as com-
pared with the value of what they
actually obtained, that we would ac-
complish through this item"
Mr.. Anderson "Is there any emer-
gency for this proposition that ne
c~essitates the making of this inves-
tigation during the next fiscal year?"
Mr.. Sherman: "Of course, We have
knowledge as to when this deci-
sion will be made by the supreme
court, but even if the decision is ia
.orable to us the Northern Pacific
land grants through Montana, Idaho
and Washington present a big admin
istrative problem that we will have
to work out in some way. We should
get a better knowledge of their lands
and of their value and try to arrive
at some means whereby, either by
exchange or acquisition or in some
way, the government will eventually
out this checkerboard system
md secure control of the forest lands
inside the national forest boundar-