that on July 19 of that year the company executed a blanket deed, conveying' to the United States all its culled and worthless tracts embraced in the Mt. Rainier National Park and Rainier Mountain Forest Reserve. Some sort of intuition must have inspired this step, because the clause in the Act of June 4, 1897, permitting the exchange of lands situate in a forest reserve for unsurveyed Government lands became inoperative after October, 1899. The fact of the Northern Pacific having relinquished to the United States all claims to a large percentage—the worthless portions, in short—of its holdings in the two reservations, gave the company full authority to sit back and select lands in lieu thereof at its pleasure, and it has since followed this policy at all times.
While individuals are not permitted to make selections under the dead "scripper" law of June 4, 1897, the favored Northern Pacific is allowed to do so, and can take its pick from the cream of all townships, surveyed or unsurveyed, in any State penetrated by its lines. During the period the Act in question was in effect, whenever an individual presented a selection under its provisions, he was required to do so simultaneously with his transfer of the base to the Government. Not so with the Northern Pacific, however. Under the broad and sweeping regulations of the Act of March 2, 1899, arranged especially for the benefit of the corporation, it was kindly granted the privilege of conveying to the Government all portions in the two reserves that it did not want, or had no use for, and then leisurely awaiting developments until it saw something that appealed to its desires! This was not the worst feature of the situation, either; whenever the great railway corporation once feasted its eyes upon a township rich in timber resources, like a hungry pack of wolves inspired by the taste of blood, it would brook no obstacle in the way of acquiring a foothold, and in furtherance of this grasping idea, has been known to harass settlers in every illegitimate manner possible. By bulldozing tactics, no less than fifteen families were frightened out of a surveyed township in Clark County, Washington, upon one occasion, notwithstanding they had made, substantial improvements upon their claims, were acting in good faith, and had presented their homestead filings at the local Land Office when the official survey was approved. The Northern Pacific had made selection of the various tracts in accordance with the rights conferred by Congress under the Act of March 2, 1899, and had instituted contests against the settlers, who gave up their possessions rather than take chances against such odds, knowing that they had no show in either the Courts or the Land Department, where it was realized the Northern Pacific had full sway.
In some sections of Oregon, cruisers and guards warn intending settlers away from unsurveyed townships that have been covered by Northern Pacific selections, and around the various United States Land Offices of the different districts in that State, are stationed agents of the corporation who discourage settlers from attempting to find homes within the confines of any region wanted by this grasping octopus.
The fact that the company has adopted such stringent measures discloses in itself that a question exists concerning the validity of titles acquired to such tracts. I am unaware that the issue has ever been determined by any competent legal tribunal, but if the Northern Pacific was really satisfied in its own mind that the Act of March 2, 1899, granting them such exclusive privileges was not special legislation of a dangerous type, and liable to be upset by process of Court proceedings, it is hardly likely that such brutal tactics would be resorted to.
There was one notable instance where the Northern Pacific got badly left in its efforts to grab a whole township of unsurveyed land. This was in connection with Township 15 South, Range 3 East, situated in Lane County, Oregon. Although the entire township had been settled by squatters prior to survey, with a view of filing homestead claims thereon as soon as the survey was approved, the Northern Pacific made forest reserve lieu selection of every acre in the township shortly before it came into market, and sent its agents around to notify the squatters to vacate their claims, threatening that unless they did so the railroadPage 382
