Nogales international., 1947-06-06
10000 Acres
Of Rail Land
Claimed By US

WASHINGTON ''Land-grant"
railroads which charged the gov
ernment full freight rates during
the war are paying for the privil-
ege in part oy forfeiting their
claim to thousands of acres in pub
lands. An Interior Department
tabulation for 10 of the railroads
listed the land upon which they
must relinquish long standing
claims, under recent Supreme
Court decision, at some 55,992
acres.
This amount remained from an
original apportionment of 282, ,78O
acres. Eight of the 19 railroads
had patented claims to a total
of 226,7S8 acres before the war
and thus retain title to them.
Largest Excluded
The tabulation did not include a
goth line, the largest grant
railroad of them all, the Northern
Pacific. Interior Department Off
Gals said they could not even
guess at the amount of land orr
ginally claimed by this company.
They ventured only that cit must
be hundreds of thousands Of acres"
The railroads and the depart
ment's Bureau of Land Manage
ment must check over huge vol
umes of records to determine this
acreage. An earlier proposed
study of Northern Pacific land
grant claims was cancelled as not
worth the cost and tremendous
amount of research involved.
Three-quarters of century
ago the government set out to
encourage settlement of the vast,
newly-acquired areas of the West
and South.
1t did this by granting to rail
road companies which would build
lines into the area acreage esti-
mated by some authorities at 1884,
3O3,668 acres-the equivalent of
Pennsylvania, New York and the
New England States combined.
Settlers Move In
When the railroads got around
to claiming the land that had
been given them, they found large
portions of it already occupied by
neWly-arrived settlers. Rather than
displace these settlers, the govern
ment allowed the railroads to sell
ect other tracts which became
known as 'lieu lands"-lands in
lieu of the original grants.
The original acts required the
land-grant railroads to- carry gov
ernment goods and personnel free.
Through judicial interpretations,
the land-grant lines for half
century before 1910 carried gov
ernment goods and personnel at
half the standard commercial rates.
?" In the depression years, earn
ings declined and steps were taken
to help the carriers. The Trans
portation Act of 1910 permitted
----land-grant roads to charge the
government full commercial rates
except on Army and Navy freight
and personnel, on condition that
they release any land claims they
might have against the govern
ment.
Suit Pushed
After the war the Santa Fe
Pacific Railroad sued to assert its
rights to public lands in New
Mexico and Arizona, on the
ground that these were '1ieu
lands" not involved in the rate
increase release of claims.
The District of Columbia Dis
trict Court dismissed the suit, but
the Circuit Court of Appeals re-
versed the lower courts decision
The Supreme Court upset the
Circuit Court decision sustaining
and appeal by the secretary of the
act defined and intent of Congress
to wipe the slate clean Of all such
claims by any railroad which
aVdlleQ 1CSelI OF tne rate cOnceS-
sions.
The Bureau of Land Manage
ment says the forfeit land will
remain in the public domain.
Much of it is unfit for homestead
ing and some of it is claimed by
Indian tribes.
The eight railroads which pat
ented claims before 1910:
Florida Central and Peninsular
Railroad, patented 92,525 acres;
Central Pacific, 88,994; Union Pa
cific 6,246 Glands other than those
involved in Supreme Court easel;
Oregon Central Military Road,
! 2,428; Chicago, Milwaukee and