Oregon's grand forest areas were brought into the market. These then lay largely as national domain available to the state for lieu land selections. These conditions were increas- ing rapidly the stream of immigration into Oregon. In fact, everything tended to create a strong upward trend in the values of vacant lands in Oregon. In the face of these con- ditions, the legislature of 1887 reduced the price of state lands, excepting agricultural college lands, the minimum price of which had been fixed by Congress, to $1.25 per acre. It also increased to 320 acres the amount of land that the non- settler could purchase from the state.
The Infamous Act of 1887.— The brazen plea upon which this robbery of the public interest was perpetrated is betrayed in the title of this act of 1887. "For the Selection and Sale of the State Lands Remaining Unsold" (the italics are mine) was its de- clared purpose. The act not only authorized the state land board to sell all state lands, the price of which it controlled, at $1.25 per acre, but "required" that the board sell them "at the uniform price of $1.25" (the italics are again mine). The strong im- plication in the language of the act "requiring" the board "to sell the remaining unsold" lands was that the state had but a few remnants of culled and comparatively worthless tracts left to dispose of. These had better be sold at any old price and the people relieved of the burden of supporting this use- less branch of the state government.
That this made a specious plea was due to the ingrained state prejudice in favor of individualistic exploitation as the only source of wealth, prosperity and happiness. A public interest at stake in these lands was hardly thought of, and a public agency competent to conserve it was not dreamed of.
The other main provision in the law of 1887 was a fit companion to that reducing the price and increasing the amount sold to the individual purchaser. Intending pur- chasers of lieu lands, — and these were now the principal re- maining lands of the state, — must name the base — or lands lost to the state out of some section 16 or 36 — in compensa-
