Palouse Settlers Win Decisive Victory Over Railroad Interests
A landmark federal decision voids railroad claims to 'lieu lands,' prompting town-wide celebrations and jubilation among homesteaders.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The news of the lieu land decision was received in Palouse with a great demonstration of joy. The Palouse News received a private telegram early this morning and posted bulletins, which caused great excitement. Flags were raised, buildings decorated, and the lieu-landers took possession of the town. The settlers regard the decision as a great victory and they held a large mass meeting in the afternoon and passed resolutions thanking Secretary of the Interior Hoke Smith and the Palouse News for the assistance rendered. The members of all three parties, regardless of politics, united in celebrating the occasion. Attorneys Cole and Guilford will test the cases on all the lieu lands in the vicinity. The examiner of the bureau of claims in Washington City has expressed the opinion that the decision destroys all claims of the railroad to all lieu lands in this indemnity strip.
“Flags were raised, buildings decorated and the lieu-landers took possession of the town.”
The 'lieu land' disputes of the 1890s centered on the power of railroad monopolies to seize vast swaths of public territory as compensation for failed projects elsewhere. This echoes current debates in the Pacific Northwest over public access to land and corporate ownership of natural resources, where the tension between settler-homesteaders and giant syndicates has simply shifted to modern corporate giants and development interests.
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