Show TELEGRAPHIC JUDGE PAYSON His Fight Against the Southern Pacific Chicago 1 Washington special Judge Payson IB preparing an argument against the transfer of the Texas Pacific I land grant to the Southern Pacific railroad rail-road to be filed with the Secretary of the Interior The Judge has fortified himself pretty thoroughly with private and public documents There is a belief on tbe part of many persons who have watched the course of Mr Tel er that he will decide against the transfer and would do so without any argument and I there is room for plenty of doubt about I the Southern Pacific claim and the Secretary I Sec-retary has generally denied the benefit of I I the doubt to the claimant corporations There are about 15000000 acres of land I in this grant and Judge Payaon is determined de-termined to secure it to settlers if he can He takes extreme grounds in the i i case of these grants and will not admit that even in the case of the Northern I I Pacific there is scything now that can be done In the first place the Northern I I Pacific hhe several I subsidiary grants that J it has not earned and has no intention for the present at least of earning About I I 1600000 acres of the best land in Oregon I was granted for the Portland and Astoria line which the company shows no inc I in-c ination to construct There are 3000 000 acres along the Columbia on both I sides of the river which the Northern Pacific will never mate a route through I I because it has come into p ifs sioi of a road already built there by the Oregon I I Rrilroad and Navigation company There are about 1250000 acres along the I I proposed Cascade line where no road has been mado Obviously these tract are etill within the reach of Congress Even in the case of lands granted to the mainline main-line though the line has been completed whore ropatents have not been issued to the railroad company Judge Pnysou i holds that Congress can R ill declare them forfeited This is doubl d ty many persons even those who would de glad to see the grant forfeited if possible but Judge Payeon concurs wllh Mr Homan of Indiana in thelbelief that it is not vet too lte to declare the lands foifrtiteo Ho will as soon as Congress meets offer this bill declaring the peifecture ol all unpstented land grant The Tex s i Pacific railroad company undartook lo dispose of its lapsed land grant of 15fOO 000 acres of land to the Southern Pacfic company Judge Payson of Illinois and Proctor Knott of Kentucky were originally the only two members mem-bers of the committee who I opposed the legality of the transfer I Subsequently Knott was taken sick and Payson was left to fight the scheme alone I This he did so well that on the final voto the transfer was defeated by 14 to 1 and a bill declaring the grant forfeited and returned to the public domain was reported re-ported to the Houe but failed to pass j After adjournment it was stated to Judge Payson that Messrs Huntington and Crocker of the Southern Pacific would endeavor during the summer to induce Secretary Teller to recognize their company i i com-pany as a land grant road and certify Ito I-to the Southern Pacific the land grant I In orer to forestall this action Judge Payson requested the Secretary of the i Interior and AttorneyGeneral to notify him if the company attempted at-tempted any such action in order I that he might present an argument in opposition and during his absence in t California Judge Payeon noticed in the newspapers a pargrapn that Messrs1 I Dunn Rosencranz and Cobb had filed a protest against the transfer ot the grant I and a subsequent item to the effect that I Mr Hill claiming to represent them had made an ineffectual attempt to with j drawthe protest Supposing something I done he came to Washington and i found an elaborate argument filed by I Tweed of the law l firm of Tweed Choate of New York asking that the Texas Pacific grant be transferred to the i Southern Pacific compaty Payson I immediately set about preparing a reply Ito Ito I I-to this and U now engaged at the interior I I department in collecting evidence thereon there-on file in support of his statement that the Southern Pacific has no legal claim whatever to the land grant of the Tessa Pacific company In conversation tonight to-night he said he came es a representative of the people to fight against I this effort to steal 15000000 cores of I the public domain This he said is only one case out of many involving upwards I i up-wards of 133000000 acres of lapsed land grants which up the present time had I I received far too little attention from the press of the country and which will i certainly become a feature of tho discussion discus-sion in the next Congress I |