12 



THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY, 



keeping with the results to be accomplished, would protect our woods 

 and cut-over districts, and give nature a chance to restock the land. 



Everywhere county abstractors, treasurers, registrars of deeds. State 

 trespass agents, etc., are found to be either directly or indirectly, 

 through agents, interested in the buying and selling of these State lands. 



As to the loss to the State, because of inadequate or fraudulent ap- 

 praisal — aside from the loss because 'of advertising and clerk hire — this 

 has been enormous. The 21,451 acres which it has only been possible 

 to examine because of the short time, show a loss to the State of |10.20 

 per acre average. According to the lists received from the Land OflSce, 

 there has been sold by the State, during the past five to six years, 882,- 

 000 acres. At this average the loss te the State was |8,996,400. The 

 value of the timber alone was five times that of the price obtained by 

 the State for the land and timber. 



The report of the special examiners sent out by the Commission 

 covers 21,455 acres examined, and is tabulated by them as follows : 



Our special examiners further say: 



Most of the land examined was not sold to actual settlers, but to 

 people who are either in the timber business or to persons regularly 

 engaged in land traffic and who evidently purchased them for speculative 

 purposes. Everywhere, certain persons or cliques of persons appear 

 either personally or through agents as the purchasers of State lands^ 

 Thus all the lands examined, showed that less than 5%' were sold to 

 actual settlers, the remainder being sold to timber dealers and land 

 speculators, many of them not even residents of the State. ( See appendix 

 2, part 2). 



The homestead law, as far as our examinations extended, in its actual 

 operation, has not lead to homesteads but has generally been used to 

 secure timber or land and timber, for speculation. Thus of the cases 

 examined, with the possible exception of one township in Newaygo 

 county, less than 10% were taken with the evident idea of establishing 

 a home, but were apparently taken for the timber values only. 



A complaint frequently met with during our investigations was that, 

 because of the large purchases of different land speculators, actual set- 

 tlers are kept out of the districts. Such a complaint was made by Wm. 

 E. Lincoln, of Peacock, who said thnt annh npnnio no STvirpaT.+ wVir> tmh.. 



