Speech #490078407

In 1882 my immediate predecessor stated that. as indicated by correspondence and official reports. "a material proportion of the preemption entries now made are fraudulent in character. being chiefly placed upon valuable timber or mineral lands or water rights. and made In the interest and by the procurement of others. and not for the purpose of residence and improvement by the professed preemptor." In 1883 be made a special reportto Congress (Senate Executive Document No. 61. Fortyseventh Congress. second session). in which he said: "Complaints of frauds and appeals for protection by bona fide settlers from the exactions and op. pressions of those who commit or cause these frauds to be committed are constantly coining up to this office. A floodtide of illegal appropriation seems to be sweeping over the new States and Territories. threatening to ingulf the entire public domain." In my report for 1885 1 stated: * "Reports of special agents. registers and receivers. and inspectors of survey orsgeneral and local land offices. communications from United States attorneys and other officials. and letters from public men and private citizens throughout the country were laid before me. all detailing one common story of widespread. persistent. publicland robbery committed under guise of the various forms of publicland entry. "In many sections of the country. notably throughout regions dominated by cattleraising interests--that vastarea lying west of the ninetyninth meridianexaminations. wherever made. had developed at all points that entries were chiefly fictitious and fraudulent. and made in bulk through concerted methods adopted by organizations that had parceled out the country themselves and were maintaining seized possessions of unentered lands by boundaries and inclosures defended by armed riders and protected against immigration and settlement by systems of espionage and intimidation. "In other cases. as in farming regions approximate to the cattle belt. it was shown that individual speculation. following the progress of public surveys. was covering townships of agricultural land with entries made for the purpose of selling the claims to others. or by entriesprocured for theacquisition of lands in large bodies. Again. in timbered regions the forests were being appropriated by domestic and foreign corporations through suborned entries made in fraud and evasion of law. Newly discovered coal fields were being seized and possessed in like manner." The universality of fraud in preemption entries of public lands is a matter of general knowledge and common notoriety.