PREEMPTION 



4807 



PREPOSITION 



vinfe grace, to deserve salvation through virtu- 

 ous conduct. It is this difficulty in reconciling 

 human freedom with predestination that has 

 made it the subject of so much dispute. At the 

 present day it receives almost no support. 

 Even the Presbyterian Church, which is an 

 outgrowth of Calvinism, has now so modified 

 its creed as practically to discard the predesti- 

 nation doctrine, making it plain that God's love 

 and forgiveness extend to all mankind and 

 that no one is denied salvation except through 

 his own unrepented sin. See FREE WILL. 



PREEMPTION, preemp'shun, literally a 

 buying before, is the name given to a method 

 formerly used in the United States whereby pri- 

 vate citizens could secure title to public lands. 

 Under this system a citizen was required to file 

 an application for the land he wanted, not to 

 exceed 160 acres, improve it and live on it for 

 six months. At the end of that time he was 

 permitted to buy the land for $1.25 an acre. 

 The term preemption was applied to this sys- 

 tem because the settler, by filing his claim and 

 living on the land, secured the privilege of buy- 

 ing the land before anybody else could take it 

 Every person over twenty-one years of age, 

 except a married woman whose husband was 

 supporting her, provided he or she was a citi- 

 zen of the United States or had declared inten- 

 tion to become one, could preempt a claim. A 

 person who already owned 320 acres of land, 

 or had abandoned his residence to take up new 

 land in the same state or territory, was not 

 entitled to the privilege of the preemption. 



The preemption system was established in 

 1837, and with minor changes in regulations 

 survived until 1891. Under its terms about 

 200,000,000 acres were transferred from the 

 public domain to private ownership. After the 

 War of Secession there was considerable fraud 

 in preemptions, notably by land companies, 

 who took advantage of the short term of resi- 

 dence required to make hundreds of applica- 

 tions through "dummy" settlers. The dummies 

 remained on the land for six months, and then 

 turned it over to the companies. The system 

 tmlly acquired an evil reputation and was 

 abolished by Congress in 1891. A similar sys- 

 tem, but moro limited in scope, is in use in 

 Canada. 



In International Law. Preemption is also the 

 rinlit. uli .d a nation possesses to seize provi- 

 sions or other commodities shipped to or from 

 another nation with which it is at war. Tech- 

 nically, the right of preemption extends only to 

 articles which might be classed as contraband 



of war, but as each nation may define what it 

 means by contraband, practically all the ene- 

 my's commerce is included. It is the custom, 

 however, when such goods are seized, to pay 

 the owner the fair market price for them. See 

 HOMESTEAD LAWS ; LANDS, PUBLIC. W.F.Z. 



PREMIER, pre'micr, from a French word 

 meaning first, refers to the first or principal 

 officer of state at the head of a Cabinet, or 

 Ministry. In European countries where con- 

 stitutional government is established, the Pre- 

 mier, as chief of the Cabinet, is responsible to 

 the legislative body, or Parliament, and holds 

 office only so long as the party he represents 

 is in power. In case of defeat of the govern- 

 ment on any important legislative matter the 

 Premier retires, with his Cabinet, and the 

 leader of the opposition party succeeds him as 

 Premier, by invitation of the sovereign. 



In Great Britain the Premier is chosen by the 

 king, and besides being the head of his party, 

 he occupies the position of a "go-between" for 

 Parliament and king. The choice of the Pre- 

 mier is practically the only personal power 

 exercised by the king of England, and even 

 that power is limited, as he must necessarily 

 select a man in whom the party in power will 

 feel confidence. Hence it becomes almost an 

 automatic selection of the acknowledged leader 

 of the dominant party. 



In Canada the same method is adopted. 

 When the Conservatives are in power the head 

 of that party becomes Premier; he is selected 

 by the Governor-General, who, however, has 

 really little personal choice in the matter. The 

 same occurs when the Liberals gain the ascend- 

 ancy. The Premier of Canada is the active as 

 well as the official head of the government and 

 presents to the Governor-General the decisions 

 of the legislative body. The assent of the 

 nominal head is necessary before measures be- 

 come law, but it is almost never withheld. The 

 Governor-General is consulted, but his consent 

 is taken for granted. 



In Canada the Premier must be a member 

 of Parliament, and he is directly responsible 

 to the legislative body and to the people. 

 There is no Premier in the United States gov- 

 ernment, though the Secretary of State, att first 

 member of the President's Cabinet, is some- 

 times erroneously referred to as the Premier. 

 See PARLIAMENT; GREAT BRITAIN, subtitle Gov- 

 ernment, page 2586. 



PREPOSITION, prep o tiah' un, a part of 

 speech which does the work of a connective 

 or "relation word," in that it indicates the re- 



