108 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



The Campaign Against the 

 National Land Laws 



D. H. ANDERSON. 



Never in the history of our country have wise 

 national laws been subject to more unjust and need- 

 less criticism than has been heaped upon the statutes 

 providing for the disposal of the public domain. The 

 opposition to these laws is based on selfish motives. 

 Those who have defended the laws have not been pro- 

 vided either with funds or with a means of advertising. 

 The public domain has been disposed of to settlers 

 under laws more liberal than those remaining on our 

 statute books today for the past 100 years. The Mis- 

 sissippi Valley was settled under conditions most fav- 

 orable to the pioneer. He could use the forests unre- 

 stricted and his herds and flocks were grazed on the 

 public land surrounding his home. He prospered and 

 his posterity have received all the benefits that have 

 come from a wise administration of liberal statutes, 

 providing for the growth and up-building of a new 

 country. The world cannot produce another valley 

 which in any way compares with this. Nebraska and 

 Kansas and many other states were settled under laws 

 even more liberal. Since a large proportion of the 

 lands in these more recently formed states have passed 

 into the hands of private parties, the tree claim law 

 and the preemption law have been repealed. 



The lands remaining open for settlement at the 

 present time present greater difficulties to the settler. 

 He is required to surmount obstacles which were deemed 

 insurmountable only a few years ago yet with all of the 

 natural difficulties he is forced to contend with, he is 

 now regarded as a criminal by those in authority. A 

 man who follows the example of the pioneer of the 

 Mississippi Valley using the unoccupied public do- 

 main during the time when there is no demand for 

 such land by the homesteader, is an outlaw in the 

 minds of those who have the ear of the present admin- 

 istration. The bureau chiefs to whom I shall refer ex- 

 plicitly hereafter have no personal knowledge of the 

 difficulties which confront the settler under prevailing 

 conditions. He is often unable to maintain himself 

 upon his own homestead and is compelled to go else- 

 where during a part of the year to earn a living for 

 himself and his family. During this time the agents 

 of the department send detectives to photograph his 

 claim and the improvements he is required to make 

 under the Rules and Regulations made without 

 authority of law at Washington. His every move 

 is watched, and if he uses the public domain to pas- 

 ture his herds or flocks he is stealing from the gov- 

 ernment and robbing posterity. Those who have won 

 out, have built up homes that would be a credit to the 

 Mississippi Valley. They have undergone greater hard- 

 ships than have any people who have settled within the 

 limits of the United States. They have earned every- 

 thing that they have obtained from the public, yet a 

 man who has made a success, who has carved out a 

 home, and probably accumulated some wealth is re- 

 garded as a target for criticism and persecution by the 



agents of the government. The use of the public do- 

 main does not restrict the operation of the existing 

 land laws. Wherever it is possible for another family 

 to exist, the field is clear. There are no serious range 

 conflicts and the range grasses will today support more 

 livestock per acre than when they were first used by the 

 pioneer, thirty years ago. In spite of these facts, the 

 press bureaus of the great administrative machines at 

 Washington have led many thinking people to believe 

 to the contrary. 



The reader will naturally inquire as to the motives 

 for such attacks as have been made on the national 

 land laws. If it were not that some power in the 

 hands of a few engenders a desire for greater power, it, 

 is possible that the campaign against these wise statutes 

 would never have been initiated. No one who has 

 studied the rapid development and growth of a few 

 bureaus at Washington can say that this has been na- 

 tural. It has been the result of wide advertising and 

 co-operation with those who have money and position, 

 but whose motives are of the most selfish and dangerous 

 character. 



The Bureau of Forestry and the United States 

 Geological Survey have from the beginning of their 

 careers been grea^, advertisers. They conduct press 

 agencies which are maintained at the expense of the 

 government. Seven or eight years ago certain railroad 

 interests controlled large areas within the forest re- 

 serves. These tracts, amounting in one case to 6,000,000 

 acres, were turned back to the Bureau of Forestry and 

 the railroad given in exchange land scrip which had at 

 the time a value of about $3.50 per acre. 



During the winter of 1902 and 1903 THE IRRIGA- 

 TION AGE printed a review of the work of a certain 

 attorney who operated in conjunction with these bureau 

 chiefs. This review contained in part the following 

 paragraph : 



"CO-OPERATION WITH GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS." 



"Before the plan submitted to the railroads by 

 Mr. Maxwell was accepted he had the campaign fairly 

 well outlined in his mind. He saw that it would be 

 necessary for him to become intimate with government 

 officials who could bring him into contact with con- 

 gressmen, members of the cabinet, and even the Presi- 

 dent. He had already become acquainted with those 

 who had ambitions to direct the irrigation policy of 

 the country, and through them he met heads of bu- 

 reaus in Washington who hoped, through his co-opera- 

 tion, to broaden the sphere of their influence and work. 

 We do not wish to bring these men into disrepute and 

 do not say that their ambitions are either to be com- 

 mended or condemned. We do say that their methods 

 are open to criticism. That they have been working 

 with Mr. Maxwell for the past two or three years is 

 an established fact. The readers of "Forestry and 

 Irrigation" can easily inform themselves as to the bu- 

 reaus which are working wren Mr. Maxwell to main- 

 tain that publication. Those who were at the Irriga- 

 tion Congress held in Chicago in 1900 have no doubt 

 as to who the gentlemen are, and they fully appreciate 

 the support which the National Irrigation Association 

 has since received. The arrangement made with Mr. 

 Maxwell by these officers is not known, but since 1900 

 the National Irrigation Association has advertised these 



