OCR Text |
Show He Would Repeal Many ! of the Land Laws Nov in Force St. Paul. Minn.. Sept. .". Senator Knuie Nelson of Minnesota, prciaced a careful review of public land act by the statement thnt the natural resources re-sources of the country should be conserved con-served by the Individual, the state and the national government the farmer' his soil; the 6tate Us lands, its for' est and its waters, and the federal government the resources of its mines, its forests and Its lands with their appurtenances. He then sketched the situation at the close of the revolution when the money-poor, land-rich government sought to dispose ol i's lands. Th well-meant laws enacted, however, resulted re-sulted In small gain to the conntiy, and big profit to speculators, who did not hesitate at shady methods to increase in-crease tbelr wealth. "The law allowing lar.ds to be si-cured si-cured at private entry was repealed iu 1.SS9. and th" lav.- allowing public ! sales was repealed in 1 he said. I "The pre-emption law was al-o repeal- ed the same year. These law s had j proved as administered, to b? ?uo-- valuable to the land grabber.-, and tlni I speculator than to the actual se:ti-r and home-builder. "In 1S7L an act was passed "to encourage en-courage the growth of tl'nber on tlx western prairies. In its practical operations op-erations the law proved a failure ai-d it was finally repc.-ih-'Kju ll.'witu some saving provisions for eilstlnj claims." The act passed In 1SC2. j.ilng to each state thirty thousand acres cf l;4id for every senator and re;r"s.eu- itatlve In congress for the purpose "f establishing and maintaining nprieul- rural and mechanical colleges, alio l did the country little good, the speak-i speak-i er s.iid. He continued: I "In 178, congress paescd the so-I so-I called timber and stone act. orlglnal-! orlglnal-! ly detailed to tour western states, hut the act of extended to all the I public l?nd flutes. Much va'.uablo ! land, suitable for agricultural pur- poses. has been entered under tho law. ond enormous quantities of ou' most valuable timber lands have been secured, by fraudulent methods, by the great timber speculators under Its provisions, employed scores and hundreds of men and women to enter en-ter valuable timber lands, worth from $10 to $100 per acre, at SL'.Cu per acre, and Immediately after entry, for a limited compensation, secured transfer of the land to themselves, pursuant to a prior understanding ond asreemont. Some five years ago the senate passed a bill repealing the act. but It fnlled to pass in the house of representatives.' Since then the Interior In-terior department has come to our relict In this matter. Th law fixed the minimum price at $2.50 per acre, but did not prohibit the governent from chnrging more, in November, 10ns, the interior department adopte-d the rule and policy of appraising th land, subject lo entry under the act and selling the samo at tho appraised value which Is much higher In most instances than the minimum prico of the statute. This new policy, which Is still adhered to. has checked th fraudulent speculation in these laods and has clven the governent a much higher price for the land entered. Over Sunton acres have been so entered. en-tered. Notwithstanding tills valuable administrative relief, I am still of the opinion that the law should be repealed re-pealed to th end that the timber and etone may be disposed of at fairer fair-er and more reasonable prices and method. "In 1S02. congre; pa5?ed the bom--, stead law. This law, aj you know, ' (Continued ou Page Two.) (Continued from Page One.) makes a gift of 1C0 acres to each sot-tier sot-tier and home-bullder who will occupy, Improve, and cultivate his claim for the period of five years. Of all our public land, laws, this has, on the whole, been tho most beneflclent and productive of the best results, but with all of Its blessings, It bad ono defect. I refer to the privilege of commutation. This Is the privilege of proving up and paying for the land at $1.25 per acre prior to the five-year five-year period for final freo entry. The vice of allowing a homestead entry to be commuted, as stated, consists In opening the door to the speculator, who, lu the ppaco of fourteen months, can secure title to tho land on scant and temporary improvements and then move awuy and hold the kind for mere speculative purposes, leaving tho surrounding settlers to enhance the valuo of his land by their continuing continu-ing and permanent improvements." Touching on coal lands, Senator Xolson said: "If the policy of selling the land is to bo continued, provision should bo mado to protect the people tho consumers against monopolies and combinations In restraint of trade and ' against unreasonable and exorbitant prlcos. Many good men, however, who have given tho subject great consideration believe and favor a well-guarded system sys-tem of leasing Instead of sale. Their contention Is that under a leasing system sys-tem a more careful and less wasteful system of mining will be pursued, and that a better protection can thereby bo secured for the miner, the consumer con-sumer and tho government. I am not prepared to take issue with this contention." con-tention." Mr. Nelson spoke of tho recent executive ex-ecutive order of President Taft with- j drawing all coal lands In Alaska from location, sale and entry. This withdrawal with-drawal by President Taft, he said, was not doubt mado In pursuance of recent legislation by congress and for the purpose of giving congress an ap-jiortunlty ap-jiortunlty to enact belter and more suitable coal land laws for Alaska than those now In force, and that such legislation Is urgently needed. The act of March 1S71 (amended ISO I . making provision for reclamation reclama-tion of arid lands by Irrigation, has largely proved a failure because the in dividual settler in many cases was unable to defray tho cost of bringing water to his homestead, the speaker declared. He added: "In view of the comprehensive character char-acter of the general reclamation act of which makes duo provision for securing a water supply and provides for limited homesteads under a quail-lied quail-lied homestead law, tho desert law referred to, could well bo ropealed. The federal reclamation system Is more certain and effective than reclamation recla-mation by tho Individual In isolated cases." ' This act, he continued, Is more effective ef-fective than the so-called Carev act of 1S94, and therefore, he said, it is not advisable to make any more grants under it. Alluding to forest resorves, Senator Nelson referred in words of praise to Gin'ord Ilnchot. He said that there wa.s no systematic effort V preserve the forests until 1S91 and again in 1897. "Under this legislation, nearly 200,-000,000 200,-000,000 acres of publ.c lands In various vari-ous states and territories-, including Alaska, have beeu withdrawn and set apart for forestry purposes, and are now embraced In our national forests, and their administration and care havo been placed on a sound, workable work-able and safe basis through the Jn.tla-tl'in, Jn.tla-tl'in, prudence and wlsd'-m of our greut forester, Mr. Plnchot, who has laid the foundation and Is tho f.ithor of our forestry system. This legislation legisla-tion and administrative, action came none too soon. Had there been moro delay, our timber lands, lung before this, would hae pass.-d Into prlvato ownership and there would have been nothing left for the government to conserve. No land legislation In re-cent re-cent times has been product. vo of such benefic ial and far reaching blessing bless-ing as our forestry h glslatlon. Whllo occasionally there has been a little grumbling and friction on the part of tcUlers and cattlemen as to tho ad- I min.stratluu of the law In some of its j details, vet it can le fairly si.id, when ! it is borne In lnlnd that It Is a new j system that has been initiated, that there has been little, if any. valid ground for berious criticism or complaint. com-plaint. The conduct of a few over-zealous over-zealous forest ratigtis and of a few over-strenuous settlors nnd cattlemen ought not to militate against the valuo aud usefulness of the forestry system as a whole and in Its entirety, ' The speaker expressed approval of the withdrawal of water power sites from every form of disposal under land acts. Coming to tho vexed point as to the legality of state or federal control, he said that men versed In the law held that while tho federal government has all the righto of a riparau owner, tho states control tho actual water. "It seems to rne," ho said, "but perhaps I may err that tho problem of developing and utilizing water power In nueh casts can only bo proierly solved by the co-operation "f tho state and federal governments. The ono owning th,e power site and tho othar the water In the stream, it strikeH mo that co operat.on In such a case . Is eiisentlal nnd. furnishes tho only practical solution." |