THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



183 



confronted Congress when it enacted what is known as 

 the Timber and Stone law. 



"It should always be borne in mind that the Gov- 

 ernment does not own its lands as a private individual 

 owns his. It does not hold the public domain as a 

 private proprietor holds his. It holds all the public 

 domain for the common good, to be disposed of for 

 large and public ends. It does not dispose of lands 

 simply to get money. The object of the Federal Gov- 

 ernment in disposing of the public domain has never 

 been to simply get the price of the land, but it ha& 

 been chiefly concerned in the disposal of the lands to 

 see to it that they shall be made to contribute in the 

 largest measure to the common good of the citizens 

 at large. 



"Congress decided that the best way to do that 

 was simply to throw them open to purchase so that 

 they might be acquired by private owners at a price 

 which would enable such private owners to buy 160 

 acres and no more, for each citizen of the United States 

 to use said land for his own special use and benefit 

 by paying to the Government $2.50 per acre, thus mak- 

 ing the lands in the different towns, counties and States 

 taxable, the revenue received from same to be used 

 for building highways and roads, to provide schools, 

 courthouses, etc. If these tracts are put into forest 

 reserves or kept out of the market, from the public, 

 it decreases the taxes from those counties, towns and 

 States and stops the general progress of the country. 



"There are now about 93,000,000 acres of the 

 public domain which have been set aside for forest re- 

 serve purposes, there being no taxes received on any 

 of this large tract of the public domain. Ninety-three 

 million acres or more have been permanently taken 

 out of the market, which stops the progress of the 

 country, stops the building of roads and schools, as 

 the same can not be taxed for any purpose. The towns, 

 counties and States and the middle classes of people 

 suffer the loss of the revenue which should be received 

 from those lands. It is not the Federal Government 

 that is the loser. 



"Take our present land laws since they were first 

 put on the statute books and follow them up. The pio- 

 neer is enabled to push forward, take up the public 

 domain, as the laws allow him to do, by homestead, by 

 timber cutting or timber and stone. As soon as land 

 is taken up and patent issued it becomes taxable and 

 a benefit to the counties and towns which the same 

 may be in. Be it prairie country, desert country, or 

 timber, the people have prospered. If the pioneer sells 

 this land he receives a benefit. He may sell it, or some 

 of his family having grown up may be desirous of 

 taking up the small portion allowed under the existing 

 laws, 160 or 320 acres. 



"The public domain belongs to the people and 

 the officers of the Government are merely holding the 

 same in trust for the people as custodians. If we boast 

 of a free country, let it be free. Don't let it be con- 

 trolled by monopolies and combinations which are striv- 

 ing to control the public domain in some manner for 

 their own selfish use and benefit and against the wel- 

 fare of the people and the progress of the country. I 

 can safely say there is 90 per cent of the business men 

 of the country deceived by the combination which is 

 striving to control the public domain. It is one of the 

 best organized, most far reaching and smoothest work- 

 ing combinations which has ever existed in this country 

 and the most dangerous since our Civil War. They are 



organized from the Atlantic to the Pacific and know 

 what happens from one end of the continent to the 

 other in a few hours' time. This combination has been 

 working for the past five or six years to control all 

 the public domain. It cares little by what method it 

 can accomplish its ends as long as it can take all of 

 the public domain out of the market. 



"The men who are talking about the monopoly and 

 land grabbing are the very men who are the land 

 grabbers. It is not the Timber and Stone Act that has 

 taken up the public domain to such a great extent. 

 For the last five years the lands were taken up by first 

 setting aside forest reserves. 



"The people who advocated the same were the peo- 

 ple who received millions upon millions of acres of 

 scrip from the Government inside of the said forest 

 reserves. I know of over 200,000 acres of land taken 

 up in one day in the State of Idaho by the same people 

 that are flooding the country with literature and printed 

 matter crying out against the land grabbers. They aro 

 the land grabbers themselves. That is the way they 

 take to further their own interests and deceive the 

 public and business men of the country. 



"As I have stated 90 per cent of our honest, intel- 

 ligent business men are deceived by the deep laid plans 

 of this combination. It takes some study to uncover 

 the main object of those who are trying to control the 

 public domain. Who pays for the literature mailed 

 broadcast over the United States, to every newspaper, 

 to every banker, to every business man of note? 



"It is not true as published that there are millions 

 of acres taken up under the timber and stone act by 

 the large land owners. The large land owners are not 

 in favor of the timber and stone law because they can 

 not control the same. It is our best citizens, college 

 graduates, school teachers, farmers, clergymen of all 

 denominations and others that take up 160 acres under 

 the timber and stone act, who pay the Government 

 $2.50 an acre and use the same for their own special 

 benefit. 



"There are now about $30,000,000 received from 

 the sale of the public lands which has been set aside 

 for the benefit of irrigation under the Eeclamation 

 Act, to be used for irrigating purposes to help to open 

 up the arid and semi-arid lands. This sum is increased 

 every year largely from the sale of the public domain 

 under the timber and stone and the commuted home- 

 stead law. It would be a dangerous move to stop the 

 revenue of the present fund for irrigation by repealing 

 the timber and stone law. The irrigation is a new 

 movement which requires close attention from Congress 

 in the matter of expending the moneys received from 

 the sale of our public lands. 



"The day may come, should the public domain be 

 taken out of the market, that the business men of the 

 country will have their eyes opened to the workings 

 of this combination. Then it may be too late to remedy 

 matters. 



"All I would say to the average business men is, 

 study the proposition. Look into the millions of dol- 

 lars which the combines have received from the sale of 

 scrip during the last five or six years. They are now 

 receiving from $8.00 to $10.00 per acre for this. The 

 issuing of scrip is not repealing the law as it was sup- 

 posed to be by the last Congress. Any man can get 

 all the scrip he wants today if he has the money to 

 pay for it. Look carefully into this matter before you 

 repeal any of our present land laws." 



