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Show DRY FARMING AND STOCK RAISING HOMESTEADS, 1904-1934 499 fences, as Addison Sheldon, T. A. Larson, and Marie Sandoz have shown. But this time a President who was familiar with the land conflict between cattlemen and settlers refused to let the guilty off with a slight penalty.6 After a series of unsuccessful maneuvers to compel the removal of the illegal fences a number of indictments of ranchers were secured, the cases were prepared with the utmost care, but when the jury convicted, the judge let the guilty parties off with a small fine and 6 hours in jail. Such disdain for the law angered Theodore Roosevelt. He had the district attorney and Federal marshal responsible for flouting the law removed and was re- 0 Addison E. Sheldon, Land Systems and Land Policies in Nebraska (Lincoln, Nebr., 1936), pp. 174 ff. ported as saying that he would remove the judge if he could. Investigating agents soon reported that the ranchers had hired 94 residents of an Old Soldiers Home and soldiers' widows to make entries under the Kinkaid Act for which they were promised from $150 to $1,000 after they had secured title. Upon being found guilty, a millionaire cattleman, Bartlett Richards, was fined and sentenced to a year in jail. The trial, conviction and sentencing of Richards and his associates was the most spectacular success the government achieved in its efforts to prevent fraudulent use of the land laws and did much to restore faith in the courts and public officials in Nebraska, a state where it had long been notorious that the influential cattlemen always seemed to win their disputes with settlers. The same vigorous Homestead Entries in Nebraska" Unappropriated and Unreserved Lands Original Entries Final Entries Commuted Entries Number Acres Number Acres Number Acres 1903____ 8, 848,906 3,345 491,706 817 119,993 540 75,782 1904 7, 834,763 4,726 1,310,712 818 120,783 330 35,944 1905 4, 481,958 150,301 10,736 4 079 4,788,352 1,719,857 1,045 966 147,956 139,562 162 112 18,540 12,777 1906 4, 1907 3, 543,161 4,179 1,773,143 990 161,146 66 8,089 1908 3, 074,658 341,686 4,022 4,109 1,740,406 1,913,713 1,061 815 183,938 163,739 78 56 8,638 6,766 1909 2, 1910 1, 879,486 3,653 1,569,173 2,559 960,735 51 5,624 1911 1 336,499 3,033 1,418,640 3,152 1,332,060 66 8,539 1912 832,750 2,672 1 283,651 2,257 1,039,054 70 8,517 1913 405,469 2,253 996,895 5,134 2,476,575 44 4,865 1914... . 270,162 2,396 1,035,411 3,059 1,393,136 43 5,242 1915... 192,358 146,256 130,016 108,556 92,826 1,120 827 562 347 314 371,949 219,504 788,086 66,043 47,614 2,217 2,275 1,730 1,043 613 1,081,093 1,079,043 791,546 417,889 208,776 35 27 30 28 21 3,671 2,933 3,459 3,194 1,946 1916 . 1917 1918 1919_____ a The statistics of original and commuted entries are compiled from the Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Interior; those for final entries are from Homesteads, a small brochure brought out by the Bureau of Land Management in connection with the celebration of the centennial of the adoption of the Homestead Act. Its statistics vary considerably from those of final entries in the Annual Reports. The table indicates that the number of relinquishments and cancellations must have been large. |
