masses of the people to become the tenants of such land-owners. It has been the policy of the Government heretofore to distribute the public land among the people in such quantities as would enable all desiring to engage in agriculture to do so as land-owners, and not as renters. As the country grows rich the tendency is to aggregate the lands in the hands of a less number of people; this is an evil with which the General Government is not called to deal after it has parted with the title to its land, but as the owner of the public land, held for the people of the United States, it becomes the duty of the Government to see that the laws intended to secure a fair distribution of these lands are strictly enforced.
RAILROAD LAND GRANTS.
In my last report I called attention to the necessity for some legislation in reference to lapsed grants. The necessity for such legislation still exists, and I repeat what I said on that subject:
Congress has from time to time, commencing in 1850, made grants to the several States or to corporations to aid in the construction of railroads. In some instances the roads have been constructed and in others partially completed; but in some cases no attempt has been made to build the roads and thus secure a title to the land. The lands thus granted have been withheld from the operation of the settlement laws.
The Supreme Court of the United States has declared, in the case of Schulenburg v. Harriman (21 Wallace, 44), that a failure to complete the road within the time fixed in the grant did not forfeit the grant. Lands thus withheld from the operation of the settlement laws must so remain until Congress shall declare such lands forfeited. If it is the intention of Congress to allow the railroad companies to complete their roads after the expiration of the term fixed in the grant, and thus claim the benefit of the grant, it should be so declared at an early day. Large tracts of land are not available for settlement because the settler cannot determine whether the title is in the Government or in the railroad company. If he purchase from the railroad company and it fails to complete its road and secure the title, he takes nothing by such purchase, and he cannot secure the land under the settlement laws, for the Department is not authorized to treat such lands as public lands. Besides this, the even sections within the limits of the grants are subject to cash entry at not less than $2.50
per acre. Thus the settler is sometimes compelled to pay a double price for the privilege of owning lands near a railroad which is never constructed.
It is difficult to make the people understand that the executive depart- ment of the Government cannot declare a grant forfeited when the corporation for whose benefit it was made has failed to comply with the conditions thereof. Petitions are presented to the Executive demanding the forfeiture of grants for non-compliance with the conditions thereof. Individual claimants declare themselves outraged because the Commis- sioner of the General Land Office refuses to allow filings on the odd sections of land within the unforfeited railroad grants. The Govern- ment is derided as the Government of the rich and opposed to the poor, because the executive department of the Government does not do what the courts have repeatedly declared could be done only by the legisla- tive branch of the Government, that is, declare a forfeiture of a grant. 6262 i in
