Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1887 — LAND OFFICE WORK. [ARTICLE]

LAND OFFICE WORK.

Millions ot Acres of Land Restored to the Public Domain. A Record That Shows a Great Benefit Derived From the Democratic Administration —Facts GURES. Hon S. M. Stocks]ager, assistant commissioner of the (ieneral Land Office, while at Indianapplis, last Saturday, called at the Sentinel office and in answer to the question, “What is the Land Office doing?” he said: “Without wishing to make any invidious distinctions between the work of the Land Office and other bureaus or departments of the Government, I will state as a fact, whieh is now generally conceded I believe, that the work of the Land Office snd the Interior Department, under the present administration, in reclaiming and restoring to the public domain for settlement by actual settlers vast tracts of lands aggregating many millions of asres, will furnish the strongest argument possible to present in favor of continuing the Democratic party in power. The present administration is thoroughly committed to a land policy which is diametrically opposite to that pursued by the Republican party. The one squandered the public land with a lavish hand upon private corporations, and withdrew from settlement vast tracts of land for indemnity purposes, m most cases largely in excess of what could ever be required, and that, too, without any regard to whether the railroads had complied with their contracts with the Government, while the other has insisted upon retaining for actual settlers, every foot of land possible, and has restored to settlement the vast tracts heretofore so liberally withdrawn for indemnity and other purposes. “In speaking of this subject I do not speak at random. It is not an idle boast or a loose guess as to what we will do, but we have the cold naked facts and figures as to what has been done. The records of the General Land Office show that since March 4, 1885, there have been lands restored to the public domain as follows: Within railroad limits 8,958,177,33 “ “ Indemnity limits 21,323,600.00 Private land claims, 576,000.00 Fraudulent entries canceled, 400,000.00 Invalid State elections 566,744.46 Total lands restored 31,824,521.79 RECOVERY OF LANDS RECOMMENDED. Within railroad limits 2,104,385.34 Under adjustment of R. R grants 2,897,869.85 Rejection of private land claims previously favorably reported 4,732,480.15 Resurveys reducing areas of private land claims 629,500.00 Suits to vacate priprivate land patents 635,255.00 T0ta110,999,49043

Grand t0ta1...... .42,823,012.13 “What a grand showing this is • Nearly 32,000,000 acres of land actually restored to the public domain, for settlement by bona-fide settlers, and nearly 11,000,000 acres more now pending before the Hon. Secretary of the Interior end before Congress, with the recommendation of the land office, that is to be rest red to the public domain. For this one grand act of restoration alone, the people of this great republic could well afford to keep the Democratic party in power for a generation. Think of it I Land erough already saved to make homes of thirty-two acres each for a million men, or of 160 acres each for 200,000 men. And, as I have stated, if the recommendations of

the land office are affirmed the Hon. Secretary or approved by Congress, as the case may be, this grand total will be swelled to nearly 43,000,000 acres. And since, lefore this action of the present administration, nearly all the valuable agricultura public land was exhausted, or r.t least covered by some kind of a filing, this becomes a living, burning question. And whatever excuses may be offered by our opponents, the naked fact appears that they we r e given away by Republicans, and they failed and refused to restore such as both legally and equitably should have been restored, while the present administration has placed them 1 in the handsof the people themselves, out of which and upon which will be made hundreds of thousands of happy, prosperous homes. “No question could more nearly concern the future prosperity and glory of this great Republic, and certainly none could come home with more force to the laboring man, who has no spot of ground to call his own, but who longs to have a home, than this question of restoring the wasted public lands.— The question of the surplus and what to do with it, or rather how to prevent its accumulation in the treasury, great and important as it certainly is, s : nks into utter insignificance when compared to the vast and far-reaching consequences not only to our own peonle for all time to come, but, in a degree, the whole world, of the public bnd policy of this country. “If we shall take no step backwar*' said Mr. Stockslager, concluding, “and with Mr. Cleveland’s grand letter in the Guilford-Miller case before us, as his views, concurred in bv his Secretary and Commissioner of the General Land Office, it is dear none such will be taken, future generations will rise up and bless the da when the change of administration, occurred.”