The Squatter’s Right to the Land

It will be remembered that Secretary Teller, while at the head of the Interior Department, inaugurated quite a reform in his department relative to this matter. Not long since Special Timber Agent Williams, of this Territory, reported that a man named Baird was cutting timber off land claimed by him and disposing of it for the United States. The Secretary responded to this proposition as follows: 'I cannot accede to your request that the Attorney General seize the timber in question and dispose of it for the benefit of the United States. While Baird is a squatter he is rightfully on the land if he intends to make his home on it and take it under the settlement laws when the land is surveyed, and he is allowed to do so. If he has taken the land in good faith, he is the owner thereof for all practical purposes, although the title may remain in the Government. If it appears that he has cut more timber than he was compelled to cut to clear up the land, he is not liable either criminally or civilly for so doing, if all the time he has the honest purpose of ultimately completing his title under the laws of the United States.'