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Show 490 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT est point in 1903 and 1904 when the commission was making its study. Commutation of homestead entries over a wider area was examined. In the timber belt of Minnesota 89 percent of the commuted entries were transferred to other parties, 36 percent in the agricultural belt, and 96 percent in the mineral belt, the transfers mostly being made either by the day of payment or shortly thereafter. An investigating agent found that the profits from entering and commuting homesteads went not to the entrymen but to the person who arranged their entries. Among the commuters in the timber and mineral belts were "clerks, business men, professional men, school-teachers, mechanics, waitresses, woodsmen, cruisers, and city laborers." Less than 10 percent were acquainted with agriculture. Of the commuters in the agricultural belt one class was actual farm makers who bought their titles within 14 months as the law permitted so as to be free to live elsewhere during the winter when farming duties were not required. They acted in good faith, the agent reported. A second class, mostly immigrants, commuted either because of illness, bad luck with crops, to return to a city for work, or to raise funds with which to finance another try elsewhere. The third class was retired farmers, land speculators, bankers, business and professional men, clerks and school teachers who were solely interested in selling as quickly as possible for the expected profit. In the Minot, North Dakota, Land District in 1903-04 there were 2,756 commuted homestead entries as compared with 293 final entries. Ninety percent of the commuters left their claims once they got title, 87 percent borrowed to enable them to commute. The United States Commissioners who had taken the proof of settlement in these cases had worked closely with the loan agents and had winked at the obvious evasion of the law's requirements. In this district and elsewhere in the Dakotas, agents reported over and over that to a very large extent the lands were being entered with the intention of commuting and selling as quickly as possible. Large areas were marked with disintegrating claim shacks but little evidence of other improvements. The cattlemen, whether they bought the claims or not, seem to have been the principal beneficiaries of these homestead entries. A representative of the Bureau of Forestry who made a special study of commuted homesteads in North Dakota recommended changes that merited serious consideration. Among these were a more rigid inspection of commuted entries, an increase in residence from 14 months to 30, outlawing the practice of government commissioners "soliciting proofs or having business relations with loan companies," and requiring that all homestead entries be investigated at regular intervals. He was optimistic that if all these suggestions were adopted and rigorously enforced the entries for non-farm-making purposes would quickly be eliminated, but if such rigorous enforcement was impossible be urged the repeal of the commutation clause.75 The commission found that little good could be said for the Desert Land Acts. As enacted in 1877 as much as a section of land could be acquired for $1.25 an acre provided it was to be "reclaimed." In 1891 the amount that could be acquired was limited to 320 acres, improvements costing $3 an acre to bring water to the land were required, and one-eighth of the land had to be put under cultivation. The wording of the law enabled both husband and wife to acquire 320 acres whereas, under homestead, double entries were not permitted. Capitalist speculators and cattlemen were able to build up large holdings by getting employees and others to 75 Report of the Public Land Commission, pp. 106-126. |