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Show 574 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT diminishingly valuable. In the first full year of operation it became apparent that the provision was being taken advantage of "in a speculative way" by buyers of land from states and railroads whose lands had little or no value for timber or grazing, or from which the timber had been cut off. They were relinquishing these lands in exchange for valuable lands outside the forests which could not be bought or otherwise acquired, except fraudulently through the use of dummy entrymen. Hermann recommended the adoption of a measure that would allow the relinquishment of agricultural land only, but he did not define this term.23 In his 1899 report Hermann commented again on the abuses occurring under the lieu provision. Railroads, lumber companies, and persons who had acquired a Timber and Stone Act entry later included within national forests, after stripping everything of value from their sections, were demanding the right to exchange their now worthless land for valuable land outside the forests. At the same time he conceded that departmental rulings had greatly enhanced the value of the lieu privilege by holding that unsurveyed lands, contiguous or noncontiguous, could be acquired with the lieu scrip.24 By 1900 the Land Office was under attack for drawing plans for the creation of forest reservations in which railroad holdings were large. Under the lieu provision the railroads would be entitled to exchange holdings not worth 50 cents an acre for land outside the new reserves that would be worth $5 an acre. It was charged that the Northern Pacific Railroad would profit from such an arrangement in Idaho alone to the amount of $3 million. Congressman Edgar Wilson declared that the reservation the Department was readying for proclamation had within its limits 100 schoolhouses, three towns, $4 million worth of assessable property and many thousands of people-He declared that four-fifths of the land intended to be included was devoid of timber.25 Whether the Northern Pacific was to profit may be questioned but other powerful interests were certainly using the lieu land provision. No action was taken to curb them except that an amendment to an appropriation measure reversed the decision of the Land Office allowing persons to locate unsurveyed land with their lieu scrip but continued the privilege to those who had delivered deeds for land within the reserves and made applications for specific tracts outside by October 1, 1900.26 In the reserves of 1900 the railroads held 2,394,160 acres as follows: Northern Pacific 1 ,305,600 Oregon & California 40,020 Southern Pacific 503,680 Union Pacific 800 Atlantic & Pacific 391,360 Wagon Roads, Oregon 152,400 Total 2 ,394,160 i3H. Doc, 55th Cong., 3d sess., Vol. 14, No. 5 (Serial No. 3756), pp. 89-90. 24 H. Doc, 56th Cong., 1st sess., Vol. 17, No. 5 (Serial No. 3914), pp. 113-15. In addition 238,279 acres of state selections when bought by individuals were susceptible of exchange for the scrip and 1,245,-951 acres of privately owned land, making a total of 3,878,391 acres that were eligible for exchange.27 By narrowing the base for selection, the lieu scrip became somewhat less valuable.28 Hermann charged that pressure was being exerted on the General Land Office to 26 Cong. Record, 56th Cong., 1st sess., April 9, 1900, pp. 3934-35. 26 Act of June 6, 1900, 38 Stat. 614. 27 H. Doc, 56th Cong., 1st sess., Vol. 100, No. 643 (Serial No. 3997), pp. 2 ff. 28 Hermann reported that oil land having values from SI50 to $2,500 an acre had been "appropriated by forest-reserve lieu selections. . . ." Ibid., p. 100. In 1901 he spoke of the lieu scrip as bringing from $3 to $5 an acre. H. Doc, 57th Cong., 1st sess., Vol. 22, No. 5 (Serial No. 4289), pp. 110-11. |
