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Show SALT COMPANY WINS MILLIONS Decision of the United States Supreme Court Gives to Ogden Peoples . the Greatest Salt Deposit in tho World History of the Legal Struggle. There was great rejoicing In Ogden, i Monday, when tho Standard announc- cd the decision of tho United Statos , supremo court In favor of tho Mon- j tello Salt company in tho action brought by tho state of Utah. History of Litigation. The grammatical construction of a phase in a section of tho enabling act,, wherebv Utah became a state, was tho question in tho litigation and upon tho Interpretation of which the ovvnor-shlp ovvnor-shlp of tho property depended Tho real beginning of tho case was when the grant of certain lands to tho then territory of Utah was mudo by con-gross con-gross In Februarv, 1855. Or rather tho right of the 'territory to rosorvo certain lnnds for tho various Institutions Institu-tions later to become state Institutions. Institu-tions. For all tho other Institutions the act of congress left no room for litigation. However, whon It came to the University of Utah, the act finally became tho stumbling block. According Accord-ing to the act of 1855, the territory was given the right to set aside as much r-. two townships In quantity of land to be held and used for establishing estab-lishing and maintaining or the stato university. When congress passed tho onabllng act in 1894 the former act was given recognition and In addition other lands were sot aside. The right to reserve re-serve tho two townships was made a I permanent grant, as well as tho right of tho state to complete tho locations of the two townships and in addition lo locate and select 110,000 acres more for the use of the university. . On section S of that enabling clause came about tho subsequent four years of uncertainty as to the rightful ownership own-ership of the salt 'beds. Depends on Two Words. In all court arguments tho two words, "and" and "including," and the proper interpretation constituted tho question at lssuo. Tho section of the onabllng act containing these words follows- "Section 8 Lnnd grant to university and agricultural college, permanent fun(lThat lands to the extent of two townships in quantity, authorized by ! tho.third section of tho act of Febru- , ary 21. 1S55, to reserve for the es- tabllshment of the University of . Utah, aro hereby granted to tho state of Utah for university purposes, to bo held and used In accordance I with the provisions of this section; and any portion of said lands that may not have been selected by said teirltorv may lc selected by said state That in addition to the above, 110 0000 acres of land to be selected and located as provided in the foregoing fore-going section of this act, and Including In-cluding all tho saline lands In said state, are hereby granted to said state for the use or said university, and 200,000 acres for the use of an agricultural college therein That the proceeds of the sale of said lands, or any portion tnoreof, shall constitute permanent funds, to bo safely Invosted and held by said state, and the income in-come thereof to be used exclusively for the purnoses of such universty and agricultural college, respectively." On this question the United Statos sunreme court said- "In determining the meaning of tho word 'Including.' which means, accord-lag accord-lag to tho Centurv dictionary, to confine con-fine within something, hold as an ill-closure.,, ill-closure.,, to Inclose, to contain, to comprise as a part, close, to contain, to comprise as a part, to take in. as the greater includes the less,' the word 'Including, the court 3ays, is a participal In tho nature of an adjective and Is a modifier. In section 8 of the enabling act It modifies the substantive substan-tive phrase, :One hundfed ten thou sand acreB of land,' and this In har-monv har-monv with the grants of saline lands to other statos" The cpurt savs further fur-ther that it doos not concur with the contention of the state that the word "including1' is used in tho enabling act as a word of enlargement, b'en a construction con-struction Is exceptional, as dictionaries and cases indicate. Tbo grammatical construction, therefore, of the plaintiff in error, the Mon tello Salt company, was sustained, and basqd noon this construction the court held that tho lands In question are not included In tho university land grant from the government to the state. Land Has Been Located. Some years before the discovery and location of the salt bed the lands granted by the federal government hnd been located and selected, or within a few acres of the total amount. While this has ncvor been established the , state in submitting its demurrer to the i claims of the salt company admitted this fact. Even before the enabling i act made permanent the grant of tho ! two townshlns that amount had been located. Following the grant and the ( additional land referred to In tho enabling en-abling act, of which section 8 de- scribes the additional amount of land. 110.000 acres, the additional land was selected and located, or this was the contention of the appellant in the caBe'and which was submitted to as a fact hy the state. In support of the argument the salt company held that the act by its very construction meant that all the saline lands of he state were In the 110,000 acres. In taking the case through the district and supreme courts of the state the fact of the actual time of discovery of the saline lands subsequent to the time the state hnd exhausted Its selection selec-tion of tho 110,000 acres grant was not established. In the arguments bo-fore bo-fore tho supreme court oNtho United States this point was brought up by some of the judges on the bench. Court'c Intervention. The case came Into being when the regents of tho stato university aDplied for an injunction in the Third district court against tho Montello Salt company com-pany asking that the company be enjoined en-joined permanently from prosecuting its intention of developing the saline properties. This action was begun on the ground that the company f-had np right to file on the land Inasmuch as under the enabling act the land, an saline land, belonged to the state. Tho case passed from tho Third district dis-trict court, George G. Armstrong prJK slding-, to the state supremo court, where tho judgment was for tho 3tate. In the salt company's brief tho allegation alle-gation was made that the Btate had no right to the, land under tho construction con-struction -of the enabling act. The. state in Its reply to tho company's brief, using as a Bupportlvo argument argu-ment that the Intent of congross in passing tho enabling act was to make I tho uso of tho word "Including" synouy I mous with "also," citing other cases I already at that tlmo having been sot-tied sot-tied by the supreme court, the formor decisions takinp tho liberal 'construction 'construc-tion of the word. In tho end, an opinion opin-ion was rendered by tho supreme court of tho stato on November 27, 1908 i This opinion, written by Chief Justice I D. N S trau p and concurred in by Justice Jus-tice W M McCarty and Justice J B 1 Frlck, affirmed the Judgment of the lower court In favor of tho slate. As ! soon as possible the salt company's attorneys, Judge W. L. Maglnnls and Judge Corn of Ogden, for the 2.000 stockholders in the Montello company, carried the case to tho supreme court of tho United States. Realizing the importance oftheca?o. the attorneys looked for some specif act of congress whereby they could ask the supreme court to advance the case to tho top of. the docket This i was not found possible and tho case i was nllowed to take Its course. In the I beginning of the case, Major Breoden was attornev general of Utah A. R. : Barnes, present attorney general, at that time assistant attornoy general, took up the state's part of the case with tho assistance of V. D Ritor Four weeks ago tho case was called before the United States suDreme court and Mr. Riter for the stato and Judge Corn of Ogden and Jesse Barton, Bar-ton, a Chicago attornov, for the Montello Mon-tello company argued it Rlter Discusses Action. Speaking of tho case in its entirety entire-ty and the decision of the highest court, Mr. Ritor ,sald Monday: "Of course. I had expected a different decision. However, all enses aro more or loss a chance. I felt that the that the state had a reasonable chance to receive tho benefit of tho decision. In presenting tho case before the United Unit-ed States supreme court I appeared for the state, and with Judge Corn and Mr. Barton, who represented the salt company, had duo and courteous recognition before that august body Tho individual members of tho supreme sup-reme court took occasion during the arguments to enlighten themselves as to tho material points In contention. conten-tion. We wore Interrupted by them at Intervals to go into details on certain cer-tain points And right here let me Hay. If an attorney goes before that great tribunal intending to make a set argumentative speech ho Is , doomed to disappointment, as tho keen questioning of the Justices will upset all efforts to proceed along that lino. At least, that was my experience experi-ence I was encouraged to believe I tho stato would win, not only by the courso of the questioning of the different differ-ent members of the bench, but by Senator George Sutherland, who had listened to the arguments. I am merely mere-ly tolling of my Impressions at the time the case was argued. Real Contention in Case. "As to the real contention In the case, everybody who has followed the case knows that the construction of tho phrase in that act of 1894 was the whole case in a nutshell The state university hnd reason to believe this land was part of the permanent grant. As an institution, it naturally realized the value of tho property On the othor hand, the "private corporation in locating the land took tho opposite view as to rights' based on tho other construction. Our contention, of course, largely -was on the Intent of congress In passing the enabling act As to the commercial value of the property. I am Inclined to think It has been overestimated At that, theUni-versity theUni-versity of Utah, with that Immense salt deposit as the means of establishing estab-lishing a permanent university fund, undoubtedly would have been the richest university In the world However, How-ever, In my mind the only course open to the university had It maintained ! ownership of the property would have been to have sold it to the highest bidder, as it would have been im practicable, I should say, for the university uni-versity as an institution to develop property of that kind. 'If there is the salt there that Is claimed, and It Is possible to place it on the market, it will naturally have a revolutionizing effect on the salt Industry of the world. May Be Ray of Hope. "Unless the court's decision is sweeping, I still see one ray of hope for the state. It Is tills: In admit-i admit-i ting facts In filing our demurrer, we also admitted for the sake of argu-I argu-I ment that the state had exhausted Its selection before the discovery of i the salt beds In question. There Is tho chance of the supreme court or-! or-! derlng a retrial of the case to estab- llsh this as a fact. I am inclined (o think at this time, though, that the I decision is sweeping and docs not I take into consideration this point, al-I al-I though In the argument before tho 1 supreme court this phase of the question ques-tion was considered in the way of special questioning. I shall be glad to see the division of the court on the decision if it was not unanimous." At the time Mr. Rlter talked on the case the dispatches had not revealed re-vealed the standing of the court on the decision. It was pointed out by Mr Riter that if the word "and" or "including" had been omitted that the meaning would then have been left clear. On the other hand, if ine word "and" alone had been omitted the state could not possibly set up a claim to the lands. The same position would have been occupied by the salt company if the word "including" had been left ouL With both words appearing in the clause in the order thoy do and with the clause "to be selected and located," lo-cated," etc., as the section reads, the meaning was loft in doubt. Theory Is Advanced. Geologists have explained the presence pres-ence of the vast bed of pure salt by showing that at one time that area -was the bed of an Inland sea of salt water. More (peculiar and wonderful that the. formation of the bed. orlgfh-allv, orlgfh-allv, probably Is the theory of tho constant con-stant reproduction of the bed of salt almost as rapidly as It Is removed It is said that excavations made for the removal of salt will be found to be filled with the same quality of salt la t,wo or" three months' time If this bo true the supply practically Is inexhaustible. in-exhaustible. Since the salt discovery and tho completion of the Western Pacific that railroad company has used with effect, ef-fect, as an advertising medium, pic-lures pic-lures of, the great salt deposits. Gils- ' toning puro whito In the sun, tho ex- -pans? of the ocean of salt appears ns a great white shoot spread evenly over tho ground. Without the railroad the deposit wou'd be Inaccessible, as tho stretch of desert for moro than 100 miles wost from the Great Salt lako Is beyond the possibility of habitation habita-tion Plant life is unknown Travelers Travel-ers westwprd for years purposely avoided tho desert ai they did Death valley. With the cooing of tho rail' road "tho desert h.i.q surrendered its wealth and no longer leads the traveler trav-eler to a death trap Effect on Market. What effect the decision may have on the salt markets of- the world Is problematical The policy of the Montello company Is not known, as tho full text of the court's decision lias-not lias-not been given out. Until tho man-., agement of tho company learns the full purpose of the decision no Information Infor-mation will be elven out. However, tho general opinion prevails that If the company should conclude to push forward improvements and dovelop the tho effect will be difficult to estimate, field, erect refineries and the like. From the deposits In sight it 13 asserted assert-ed that the company could supply the whole world with salt, Independent of all other companies. With an advantage advan-tage no other company possesses, the Montello company hould fJpodi the markets of the world, as the process of formation has been performed by nature and the almost pure material can bo passed from Its resting place to the refineries with little cost of handling. hand-ling. Dr. Talmane's Views. Dr .T B. Talmage, in response to a request to give his opinion of the loss of tho state university, said: "I have not gone into the question of the commercial value of this property. Of courso I know the unlvrcdtv in losing the case has lost property that would have been of great value In establishing establish-ing a permanent ondowment fund. Tho real value to the university had it secured title to tho land would depend on the ability of the university to market mar-ket tho salt. "In the light of tho operating companies, com-panies, now active being unable to find a market for their products, it would soem to me a hard matter to ploce a value on the property. Undoubtedly Un-doubtedly it would be an unusual ns-set ns-set for tho university and will grow in value in the passing of years." Property Immensely Rich. The Montello Salt company, a mutual mut-ual concern, was first formed by 1,-000 1,-000 locators from all parts of ' the country, the greater number being from Osden, Salt Lake Citv and cities of Nevada. This was In 190C. Afterwards, After-wards, In 1910, tho capital stock of the company was Increased to Include about 1,000 more locators. The company com-pany now is a mutual Incorporation with about 2,000 stockholders The principal place of business was located at Ogden, where most of the officers and about 50 per cent of the stock Is held. It Is estimated that the property Is worth ?200,000,000. On the 10,000 acres the salt goes to an average depth of three feot and shows nn analysis of nbout 99 per cent pure. When the company was organized each locator was allowed COO shares of pooled stock representing twonty acres of salt land For every C00 shares issued to a stockholder, stock-holder, -100 shares of stock are put in to the treasury of the company to meet expenses of future development, which makes the stock non-assessable The offices of the company are located lo-cated at 309-310 First National bank building,. Ogden. The officers are S T Corn, president; H. W Wistner, vice president Thompson Corn, secretary and treasurer. S T Corn, H W Wistner, D. S. Clark, O. Holmgren, J. C. Bell, R. A Pierce and Edward Miller Mil-ler compose tho board of directors. |