Show The Land Grant NEW YORK October 21A Washington Wash-ington special to the Evening Post says The Interior Department has in contemplation con-templation a plan by which the efforts to forfeit the unearned land grant which were unsuccessful in Congress may be successful through departmental depart-mental action The Jw officers of the Land Office have the suoject now under consideration and If the plan shall meet with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior it will be put into operation Some time ago the Interior Department decided that no land grant road should be considered to have earned its grants until it had filed a perfected plan of its entire road and of the granted land claimed Proceeding from this decision as a basis it is suggestedthat suit may lie against the Northern Pacific Railway in which the government will maintain that it is not entitled to any land which it claims for instance in the grant from Duluth to Puget Sound because these lands were not earned and the perfected plan for that part of the route was not filed within the time prescribed This theory proceeds of course upon the assumption assump-tion that the road could not earn any of the land if it did not earn the whole grant and on this theory the Secretary of the Interior will doubtless be asked to declare the lands forfeited and open to settlement |