LAND FRAUDS IN AMERICA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8436, 7 May 1907, Page 3

LAND FRAUDS IN AMERICA.

The President's Message of February 14th last, urging control of the fuel deposits on lands still belonging to the Government, echoes the recommendation in his first Message opening Congress. Already a Bill has been presented by Senator La Follettte reserving the remainder of the public lands from absolute sale, but providing for their development under Government control on proper leases. Withdrawals of over 45 million acres of public lands from sale have already been made by the President. Frauds on a gigantic scale resulted from the unrestricted disposition of lands. The private individuals to whom they were allotted were afterwards ascertained to be mere nominees of wealthy corporations, which thereby secured valuable > monopolies. The exposure of the frauds is to be credited to Mr Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior, who has long been a member of the Cabinet, and will -■''■' shortly retire on account of his age. Hitchcock has persistently assail*„edthe system of "dummy"" purchasers and other underground methods of spoliation, and has been venomously attacked in his turn. His task has been especially hard in the Indian Territory, where a horde of speculators has been looting the ignorant and credulous Indians for years,and his victory was completed by the passage in the Senate of the Indiau Appropriation Bill last week. I I have known Mr Hitchcock for j twenty-five years as a man of cour- j age and impregnable integrity, i Such .men are sorely needed by the nation at the present time, and it is to be hoped that his successor, Mr Garfield, will follow in his footsteps. ■ As the result of the recent investigations into the land frauds one Senator has been sent to prison and a member of the House of Representatives is now under trial.— Times Washington correspondent.