The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-01-26

d. people ensued and no more attentio
was paid to the matter.
It Right at this juncture the fine wor
e of the railroad began, and the stat
It was jobbed and cheated and looted t
q the limit; while the railway compan
IS garnered the harvest of many million
/ dollars of profit-or rather-loot.
{ The Northern Pacific Railroad ha
:. always owned and operated collec
Il ton of United States senators ant
; congressman in the states its line.
/ traverse. 1t selected as its agent, ser
y vitor and attorney a senator from
I Montana 1t cost money to do so, but
$ 1T paid.
Under the easy-going Mckinley ad
+ ministration, United States senators
e were given plenary power in the Sc
: lection of federal officials from theil
: own states. 1t was so in Montana
: The state, under the law passed by
: congress, was divided into three min
, eral land districts. There were three
commissioners chosen for each dis
: trict. 1t was their duty to classify
all lands in the railroad grant as min
! eral or non-mineral. The land class
, flied as mineral was to be segregated
from the non-mineral and to become
again part of the public domain,
open to mineral entry and purchase.
; That classified as non-mineral was
patented to the railway company. The
railroad was given the right and priv
ilege to select lieu lands for all min
eral lands set apart by these mineral
land commissioners out of its grant
1t could make it's own selection from
the public land in the state to make
good the deficiency.
The law became effective during
the second administration of Presi-
dent Cleveland. At that time the
Northern Pacific Railway Company
had its United States senator, nomi-
nally Republican, in the national
senate; and Daniel Lamont, later vice
president of the Northern Pacific
nominally Democrat, member of
| the presidents cabinet. Under the re-
mainder of Cleveland's administration
and during the first Mckinley admin
sioners were chosen and did their
work. The railroad, by it's agents at
torneys officials and senator's, prac-
tically named the commissioners. If
it did not name all of them, it certain
ly manipulated, controlled and di-
rected them, or majority of them, in
the service they performed. Their |
nrlr sy,,,,. 10 h.
and profit of the railroad.
These commissioners were mainly
of two kinds: men who knew abso- |
lutely nothing about mineral land and |
minerals, broken-down political hacks
from the East and South; or men
from Montana who knew all about
minerals and mineral lands, and who,
knowingly, served the interests of the
railway company faithfully and well.
One of these commissioners, in the
most important district, posed as a
mineral expert and Democrat under J.
one administration, and as a mineral
expert and Republican under another
administration; but, in reality, was a
railroad agent and servitor all of the
time, and has never done a lick of
work since
The Northern Pacific owned mil
lions of valueless acres of land in
Montana before these commissioners !
began their work of classification. {
When that work was completed. it !
owned but little, if any, worthless {
land-all of its real estate holdings in {
Montana were valuable. Previous to
this alleged classification it owned t
many square miles of mountain peaks. !
barren wastes, rock-slides and desert /
1rift-heaps of gravel on which scarce S
y a spear of grass, stick of mer- t
charitable timber, stalk of grain, I
vegetable root or fruit tree c
would grow. In lieu of such worth 7
ess lands it now possesses millions t
If acres of rich agricultural and tim t
Der lands, the latter of which will l.
'oon become priceless. 1t was a vast r
eal estate deal, the profits of which a
meant many millions of dollars to the f
,reat railway corporation which ma b
llpulated the entire governmental ma v
hinery of the mineral land classified t
ion in Montana. Il
Shrewd, INSCRIPTIONS land agents n
II the railway company accompanied "
he several mineral land commission d
RS in all their expeditions and ex-
of land. They, also, stood b
t their elbows when setting in ses- "
ions as determining board to pass Ct
pom doubtful or contested claims T
he interests of the public were en- d
rely neglected. The railway agents g
nd attorneys were always at hand. o.
When any commissioner was disposed IL
D be fair and decent, he found two P
Their commissioners, a majority, T
gainst him, and the majority deter n,
lined the final result. O,
1t is true, that, in few isolated d.
commissioner did rebel
nd threaten to make exposure of the do
holesale fraud, but nothing ever
ame of the matter. He may have
and it is known, in one Az
lstance, that one commissioner re-
gned in disgust and revealed the
sal facts to prominent citizen of -
-ontana; but even he seems to have
cen silenced, as nothing further was re
yer heard from him. But most of al
lem made~no complaint, served the be
orthern Pacific faithfully, Loyalty tn
Id well, and allowed it to work its III
yn sweet will from beginning to end. an
The revelation of the one honest tn
who rebelled, COM an
aimed and resigned is interesting. fic
ere it is in substance as he told It: en-