Show LAND GRANTS AND MINES the recent decision of a judge in dakota regarding the claim of the land grant railroad companies to the mineral lands embraced within their grants still leaves the question open for determination and battlement by the highest judicial tribunal of the nation to which a case has been appealed the discussions by the public press are generally carried on under a misconception of the real status of the case the facts are that when Con congress grees granted to the union central and northern pacific and certain other roads large tracts of land it was stipulated that mineral lands should not be conveyed by tha the grants the question which has since arisen is as to whether this stipulation applied only to land known to be mineral at the time the grant was made or whether all land laud would be exemae I 1 upon which mineral might be found prior to the issue of the patent the decision of the dakota judge was sub a ta 11 bially that in case a patent bad had issued sued for land supposed to be agricultural the subsequent discovery of mineral would not invalidate th the title ot of the bolder holder he having pur chased the land from one of the railway companies the springfield republican commenting upon this decision flays says that it ii Is right and that while no ona ono would mourn if the road lost a few low tho thousand asand acres more or less for which it bad had never given an equivalent yet it would nevar never do to leave the innocent purchasers of these lands at the marey moray of any prospector wh might find flad a little gold silver or copper on their lime years after they hey had made homes on oa them the lit republican publican evidently does n nit alzi up the true situation this is apparent from tha above comments comai eats the qu quentian quest estian ja at issue between the miners minera of ot Alo montana atana especially nad ind the railroad companies does not affect cases where patents are issued to the purchasers of agricultural land from the land grant railroad railroads j A colorado piper says it applies to cases where the discovery oi of mineral although subsequent to i the act of congress making the great Is prior to the selection of the land by the railroad or tha issuing isa nag 0 of f a patent in montana a great deal of excellent mining property Is in this situation tuition sl the mineral was d discovered iacov after the land laud grant was enacted enact el bat before the title of the government bad had passed to the railroad company compa oy upon this point the denver danver republican says it is claimed by the maineri that it would be a gross ic lna lastice stice to them to hald that their title to tam mineral property is null and void simply because twenty five years or more ago when tha the act of congress was passed it was wa 0 not lot known that mineral existed on th that at particular land they contend that the reservation of mineral land frim the tha operation of tha the grant should apply to land which was in tact fact mineral although it was not known toba to be eo so at the time the act of 0 congress crebs was passed provided the di discovery a ver was made before the railroad perfected its title there is imminent danger that the northern pacific will get hold of some of tha the most valuable raining mining properly property in the state of montana and thus deprive miners of the fruits ct of years of labor |