New Britain herald., 1929-10-19
EARLY LAND GRABS
 PRODUCED DLObB!ES
Crooks and Interested Congress-
 men Robbed States, Nation
By RODNEY BUTCHER NEA Service Writer

! Washington, Oct. 19-After the ! first large crop of lobbyists had forced through the Assumption bill with the aid of heavily interested congressman and officials, thereby
 enriching the spectators. both lob byists and spectators turned their
 attention to the rich lands to the west.
 Manufacturing and other special classes needed no special lobby tC aid them in the early days. Wealthy i propertied men occupied the seats of congress and were able to legis- late for themselves as class. But there were many cnterprisiug per sons who saw great opportunities 1 in the new country and these either hired lobbyists or came to the seat of government themselves. Most of
 the land in the northeast had al ready been taken when the Consti- tuition went into effect, but vast areas remained ia the south and the middle and far west.
 \ Lot of Bribery
 Companies of distinguished citi- zens. largely composed of traders and bankers, employed bribery and corruption OH a large scale, the evidence shows, either 10 get land grants or have favorable laws pass
 ed or 10 evadc existing laws re- garding remuneration as was often done with connivancc of land office
 officials. There were no laws tending 10 help the small settlers Every thing did help the spectators who wanted to sell small lots at cxorbi- tant prices.
 Tn carrying out this great work, both in congress and the logisla- lures, the old lobby dug itself in. There were many protests at the big land grabs, but cupidity dcfcat- cd indignation. Nevertheless, there
 were some promoters once who ar ranged q land split with certain actually brought to trial at the bar of congress when the deal was pub licly disclosed. But 8 Philadelphia lawyer argued that the land grant bill had not been passed and so no punishable offense had been com
 mitted. He won the case.
 Lobbyists in the Georgia legisla- turc, representing q group of Bos- ton and southern capitalists, oh- tained millions of acres of land and bribery became such an important issue at the next election that the people chose an almost entirely new
 legislature which rescindcd the sale act in 1796. The land was later ceded to the federal government.
 The New England Mississippi Land company had bought mil
 lion or so acres from an original buyer and although it paid little or no part, even of that amount. the
 prominent Boston capitalists form ing the company lohbicd for Il years in congress for indpmnifica- tion. They finally got s1.ooo,o0o from the treasury. The supreme court. which early showed q pen chant for sustaining grants and franchises obtained by bribery and fraud, ruled that the legislatures s original contract could not be re- vokod.
 Bribery obtained many bank and other charters in this early period.
 The canal graft provided big job for the lobbyists. Various inter csts wanted canals built and urged that they would stimulate trade. The job of the lobbyists was to persuade federal and state govern ies should be given both the ap- propriations 10 dig canals and the canals themselves.
 The government began 10 hand out canal land grants in 1924. The Wabash and Erie Canal company obtained S2G,0O0 acres in land grants in the next 10 years and various others received lesser acre SlS'H. Noll6i cps save away d totdl pL 4,224 4000 acres for the canal pro- jects, mostly in Indiana, Ohio, Hi nois, Wisconsin and Michigan.
 Few Canals Were Dug
 The fundamental object of most promoting companies was plumber and to get rich quick. They asked for second. third or fourth appro- priations and stole most of them. whether made in money or land, by indirect methods. Many of the pro- motors hal little intention of building canals. One company dug q worthless little ditch and by fraudulent surveys made it's con- grcssional grant cover 100000 acres of rich copper land in Wisconsin. The government never got them back.
 Tor years lobbyists devoted them selves to obtaining grants of swamp lands which generally turned out to be valuable mineral, agricultural, timber or grazing lands.
 But these early lobbyists, it would appear, were only pointing the way for the great era of lobby ing and corruption which was about to be launched by railroad