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Show Greased Pig Land Policy. Tf ITHOUT any data' ready at hand. y we wil Itake chances in fixing the origin of the "sooner" about the time the first Indian reservation was declared by law open for settlement settle-ment to first come first served, and the race was for the swift and the battle for the strong. In no- other way can we imagine why the word "sooner" should be enumerated among the com-r com-r mon nouns, gender and case of our western grammar. Defined, a "sunner" Is a person who, is there sooner than he should be there. Whoever suggested and had incorporated incor-porated tnto the public lands laws the present methods obtaining upon the opening of reservations, certainly bad thos grotesque ideas of fair play that swell the head of a cross-roads statesman. states-man. He may have been a secretary of the interior for all we know, but he got his idea a public life from the country fair. At the country fair, the greased pig is plaeed out towards the center of the ring and such as covet the swine stand on the edge prepared to run for him at "one, two, three-go!'' three-go!'' This greased pig theory of equity, perfectly proper at the country fair, is carried into the practice of the Interior In-terior department and Is seriously considered con-sidered the best means of rendering the greatest number! A certain hour of a certain day is announced as the time set for the opening of an Indian reservation. Along come a lot of men, determined and desperate, who camp on the edge of the reservation so as to be ready for the rush, when the .signal is given. Every man is a Mazeppa on horseback and a sure shot with a pistol. pis-tol. The man who really needs the land, and whose patient toll would earn a home, is the timid man. He stands no show in such a crowd, A day or two before the opening day the "sooner" suddenly disappears, as If the ground had swallowed him. The latest example of this farce of Interior department justice is awarding award-ing lands as prizes to the swift and daring is given in,the story of the recent re-cent opening of the Fprt Hall reservation reser-vation in Idaho. There it was a contest con-test between steam and horse flesh. ! The particulars are exciting and thrilling thrill-ing .and could easily discount the im-; im-; probabilities of a yellow-cover novel. The Mazeppas with swift relays of horses, actually beat the raiders who chartered a special train of the Oregon Ore-gon Short Line from Pocate'lo or Mc-Cammon Mc-Cammon to Blackfoot and were first In line to present their filings for Fort Hall lands at the . United States land office! Where was the timid man who j really needed a home? Not there. I Where was the deserving woman who j might scratch out a living until her ; children could help her cultivate the farm she was as much "entitled to ag the speculative desperado? Not there. Oh.'.what a farce Is thi3 United States Interior department! , Among those who took chances by taking the Short Line special was a Myers Cohen. Alas, poor Cohen! Just as he got ready to Jump the moment the train reached the platform, somebody behind tripped him and he fell against the edge of the platform with terrible force. The mishap cost Cohen a quarter quar-ter section of land on Marsh creek on which he "squatted'' in 1874, When he preached the land office, Cohen found a homesteader-op "sooner"' ahead of him. Oh, what a humbug is this interior department! The dispatches from' Blackfoot, Ida., which gave the particulars of this race for the swift and &attle for the strong, also say that "Despite all vigilance on the part of the United States officials and the police, po-lice, 'sooners' secured the choice lands. Homeseekers and miners, who., in. good faith lined up and made the race honestly hon-estly and were first to reach the land office, found that the lands and claims which they had selected had been preempted pre-empted by persons who were not in line at the hour set for the opening. Most of the men thus defeated in the hope of securing homes they had dreamed of for months, took their ill fortune with, true western philosophy, but there was considerable bitterness of feeling on the part of some, and many contests were filed, which will be fought to the bitter end." "Took, their ill fortune ' with true, western philosophy!" say the daily newspapers. What a cheerful message to the interior department! What signal sig-nal recognition of its greased pig theory the-ory of conferring the greatest good upon the greatest number! Charles Dickens wrote novels to a purpose. Not only was his style the most remarkable in fiction, but hi3 blows at public humbugs and iniquitous legislation through the characters he conjured up, did more to influence public pub-lic opinion than years of debate in parliament. par-liament. Among our Bret Hartes, Mark Twains. Joaquin Millers and Whitcomb. Rileys, have we none who could show up the grotesque iniquity of our greased pig interior department? Among our local humorists there is Joel Priest of the Herald; a clever editorial ed-itorial writer, be it said, who does not believe in taking the world's affairs; seriously. Yet if Editor Priest so chose,, he could expand his humor to some purpose if he took up the subject above mentioned, instead of expending it upon the man around the corner. Nor would it be divested entirely of local Importance, for one of these days the Fort Hall farce will be re-enacted in Utah when comes the time for opening open-ing up the Uintah and Uncompahgre reservations. Shaking dice for a piece of public land would not certainly commend itself it-self to. the pious parsons of our Ministerial Minis-terial association. Yet will one of them deny that it is not a better plan ! than the one now obtaining in the Interior In-terior department? Where 20Jt pareels of land, for example, exam-ple, are to. be distributed among 2,000 bona fide applicants, what better plan could be carried out than picking the names of the winners out of a lottery wheel? Then would the timid man and th deserving woman stand some chance, and the race would not be for the swift or the battle for the strong. "Oh. but that's another species of gambling." again cry the parsons. So it is; but that's the way you conduct your church fairs, brethren. No application should be considered by the land board unless the candidate be. a citizen of the country, and the state in which the reservation is to be opened. Further, no application should be entertained except from such who, can prove that they own not a foot of land anywhere.- The greed for more land by those who already own more than they cultivate themselves, is one of . the grave problems of our social economy. No man should hold more than he needs. Of course, it would be unlawful to restrain a person from doing do-ing what he likes with his money, even to the purchase of thousands of acres; but it is not unlawful, and entirely constitutional, to take the tax off improved im-proved property and place it entirely upon the land. Under such condition, I the prudent man would be content with ' an acreage that would give him a comfortable com-fortable living. But before anything can be done toward reform "In the administration of public lands," we must first, kill this greased pig in the interior department, because his presence in the same dwelling dwell-ing with Justice only serves to make a grotesque comedy of the homestead law. Kill him. if we can, by sober reasoning. If that is not effective, knife him with ridicule and show him up In the deadly cartoon. We need equitable land laws in this western country almost a.s, much as we jieed irrigation. j |
