The President Takes the Side of the Homesteader

Executive Mansion, Washington, April 26, 1887. Dear Sir: I have examined with much care and interest the questions involved in the conflicting claims of Guilford L. Miller and the Northern Pacific Railroad Company to certain public lands in Washington Territory. Miller claims to be a settler upon the land in question, whose possession dates from 1878. He alleges that he had made substantial improvements upon the said land and cultivated the same, and that he filed his claim to the same under the homestead law on the 1st of December, 1883. The railroad company contends that the land is within the limits of the land from which it is entitled to select such quantity of public land as might be necessary to supply any deficiency that should be found to exist in the specified land mentioned by the grant by the government to said company. After a lapse of 15 years, this large body of public domain is still held in reserve to the exclusion of settlers for the convenience of a corporation, though it is entirely certain that much of said reserved land can never be honestly claimed by said corporation. Our public domain is the national wealth and the interest of our growth and the heritage of our people. It promises limitless development and riches, relief to the crowding population and homes to thrift and industry. These inestimable advantages should be jealously guarded and a careful and enlightened policy on the part of the government should secure them to the people. You have not yet taken any action in this matter and it seems to me you are in a condition to deal with the subject in such a way as to protect this settler from hardship and loss.