Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1885 — THE PUBLIC LANDS. [ARTICLE]

THE PUBLIC LANDS.

The Wholesale Method of Stealing Them From the People By Cattle Barons. To the Editor of The indianopolis News : There be land-rats and waterrats, water-thieves and land-thieves —I mean pirates.—[Shakspeare. An Englishman who had suborned his employes to swear to false pre-emption papers in Colorado was recently convicted in Denver and sent to the penitentiary for ten years. —[Newspaper Item. A few days ago in California a settler gave testimony to the effect that a rich neighbor had made false proofs of land entry and soo.. after giving his testimony was shot by ihe land-tliief against whom lie had testified. —[Newspaper Item. It is reported that *. bill which passed the Lower House of Congress at its last session and was ready for the action of the Senate, providing for the bringing of suits by the Attorney-general to reclaim lands stolen from the Government by means of perjured and forged pre-emption papers, had been stolen from the files. This will necessitate the introduction of a new bill, and the land-thieves hope to have force and influence enough to prevent its passage. —[Washington dispatch.

The above items should arrest the public attention. It is plain to any one who has studied the subject that, unless Congress and the people shall sustain the eft* rts of the administration to stop landstealing and to reclaim, as far as may be, lands already stolen, what is left of the public domain of the country will soon be in the hands of corporations and individuals who have been stealing themselves rich by the abuse of the homestead and pre-emption laws which were enacted for the benefit of actual settlers. For the present I say nothing of the enormous land grants to railways. The people are sufficiently aroused on that subject and the effect of a healthy public sentiment is manifest in the recent and proposed congressional legislation. The Mormons have created over one hundred million dollars of wealth in Utah, and have shown that what once was regarded as worthless land is capable of sustaining a large population. The whole Rocky Mountain region, from the Mexican border to the British possessions, if reserved for the use of actual settlers is capable of supporting and producing a race of men which, in point of thrift, courage and independence, will compare favorably with the Swiss mountaineers at their best estate. Unless something is done to prevent English and Scotch capitalists and American corporations and land pirates from appropriating this land, the conditions will be such that it w r ill be impossible for bona fide settlers to avail themselves of the Nation’s offer of these lan- s for homestead and preemption entries. In some instances cattle companies, consisting entirely of foreign stock-holders, have built hundreds of miles of wire fence across the public domain, and have employed armed men to guard these fences with instructions to shoot down American citizens who insi . ted upon removing them for the purpose of going upon Government lands with the view to select locations for their homes and grazing grounds for their cattle. A district judge in the Territory of Wyoming decided a year or two ago that such fences were nuisances and ought to be removed, yet such is the influence of the powerful men and corporations who have thus appropriated the public domain that their inclos-

ures still remain unmolested. The humble settler is too weak to make the fight alone. As we have seen in one of the items at the head of this letter, if he even gives testimony in a court of justice against one of the land pirates, he is liable to be shot down with no more compunction than if he were a coyote. President Cleveland has reinforced the decision of the j dge in Wyoming by a proclamation calling upon all persons who have erected such inclosures upon the public domain to remove them. The land pirates defy the President and mai tain their inclosures, and it is very seldom that Government officers in this Territory have the courage to prosecute the offenders. I know of instances where settlers upon valid pre-emption claims are fenced in by these unauthorized inclosures, and whose families are rouudl • cursed . and threatened with violence if they are not careful to close the gates through which they may pass from their premises by going several miles out of their way; The wir' fence theft is a bold defiance of all law, and it remains to lie seen how long the President and Congress will allow the rascals to enjoy the fruits of their crime. The records of the Land Office at Washington show that some of the corporations that are engaged in stealing the public domain are backed by the powerful. influence of senators and members of Congress.

There is another way by which many of the choice parts of the public domain have been fraudulently appropriated under color of law. Those who have visited the grazing lands in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and elsewhere, in the Rocky Mountain region, know that the only eligible locations for homes a. e to be found in the valley,* near +he springs and water courses. 'he law allows but. one pre-emption claim and one bomesfead claim. These must be made by actual bona fide settlement and the erection and maintainaneeof valuable improvements The utmost that one person can take under these laws is a half section or 320 acres. Before the tide can be perfected under a pre-emption claim, the claimant must make proof of his personal occupancy of the jpremises and that he has made valuable improvements to a certain amount within a limited time. These facts must appear by writt n documents sworn to arid filed in the office of the Land Register of the Land Office for the District. have seenl the “Mikado” will remember how Koko and his friends furnished proof of the execution of the wandering minstrel. His death had been decreed by the Mikado. It was a principle of law that what ought to be done might be considered as having been done, and if it might be considered as having been done, there was nothing wrong in saying that it had been done and swearing to it. Upon the same principle the large land rats in the territories have been in the habit for some years of procuring obscure men to make false entries, false proofs of settlement, cultivation, and improvements, and, what must be very shocking to you, procuring the editors of papers to swear that notices of the entry had been published in their papers, contrary to the facts. All this having been done, the obscure person who had been the instrument of this fraud, would make a conveyance to the man who had hir d him to do it, and upon this an application would be made to the Land Office for a Government patent. In some cases where a pliable instrument was not at hand, the more convenient plan of forging all the papers has been resorted to. By the use of such methods, thousands of the best water rights in the territories which would have made eligible homes for settlers, have been stolen and appropriated by foreign and home corporations and individuals who had the money and

means to pay for suborned evidence and forged documents. It also uppeiirs b the records of the Land Office at Washington that in many cases tli© Reg sters of the Land Office have connived at and assisted in these villainies. In a future communication I will give in detail some of the methods by which these frauds have been accomplished. W. P. Fishback. Had the Democratic House bill (reported in one of the above items as having been stolen from the files) been promptly passed by the Republican Senate the President would not very long permit the “wire fence theft” to continue nor the “rascals to enjoy the fruits of their crime.” “President Cleveland has reinforced the decision of the judge in Wyoming by a proclamation calling upon all persons who have erected such inclosures upon the public domain to remove them, and backed by proper law ho will completely wjpe out what has thrived under the fostering care of Republican administration '.