MONOPOLY OF TRANSPORTATION. 597 



same should not be restored and opened for settlement In 

 some instances, to use the language of Secretary Lamar in 

 his annual report to Congress in December, 1887, "the 

 companies failed to show cause; others filed answers assent- 

 ing to the revocations, as they had received satisfaction of 

 the grant either in full or as far as possible; others assented 

 on condition that lands covered by selections already made 

 should be excepted from the order of revocation as illegal 

 and a violation of chartered rights.' 7 A part of these 

 lands were restored to the public domain while others are 

 still in dispute and unsettled. Mr. Lamar concludes his 

 report as follows: 



"Following this action, instructions were subsequently 

 issued to the Commissioner of the General Land Office to 

 detail all the available force in his office to the work of 

 adjusting the road grants, and proceeding as rapidly as pos- 

 sible with the same. The amount of land restored to the 

 .public domain through the orders revoking the indemnity 

 withdrawals, is stated by the Commissioner of the General 

 Land Office to be 21,323,600 acres." 



Nevertheless, we have the great national spectacle 

 presented, of the leaders of one great political party, rep- 

 resenting about five million voters, claiming to have 

 "restored to the people nearly one hundred millions of 

 acres of valuable land to be sacredly held as homesteads 

 for our citizens. ' ' While the other party in their platform 

 persistently "deny that the Democratic party has ever 

 restored one acre to the people, but declare that by the 

 joint action of the Republicans and Democrats about fifty 

 millions of acres of unearned lands originally granted for 

 the construction of railroads have been restored to the pub- 

 lic domain.'* Who are the public to believe? 



