Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1902 — THIRTY MILLION ACRES OF LAND IN DISPUTE [ARTICLE]

THIRTY MILLION ACRES OF LAND IN DISPUTE

Supreme Court to Decide Validity of Grants to Railroads in Certain Cases. Washington dispatch: Argument was begun In the United States Supreme court in the case of Nelson vs. the Northern Pacific Railroad company. J. Hamilton Lewis appeared for Nelson and C. W. Bunn and J. B. Kerr for the railroad company. The case is a test one and is intended to determine the point as to whether patents granted to the railroad company are valid in cases in which the company’s map of definite location was filed subsequent to settlement, the land having previously been withdrawn from settlement in accordance with an order from the interior department. Mr. Lewis says mat about 30,000,000 acres of land will be affected by the decision. The case of George Tsukamoto was submitted without oral argument. Tsukamoto is a Japanese laundry man in San Francisco, who recently made application for a permit to put a steam boiler in his plant. This request was refused by the city authorities and Tsukamoto alleges that the refusal was due to his nationality. The legal proceeding was instituted to compel the authorities to permit the boiler to be set u ). The court also heard arguments in the case of the American School of Magnetic Healing vs. J. M. McAnnulty, postmaster at Nevada, Mo. The case turns bn the constitutionality of the right of the postofflce department to refuse to deliver mail to the school on the ground of fraud.