The Settlers' League Takes on the Railroad Monopoly
Local homesteaders are challenging the Northern Pacific Railroad's land grants in a high-stakes legal battle that could redefine the ownership of the Columbia River corridor.
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 Settlers' League is an organization which is striving to help the settlers in opening up this part of the state. They have branches all the way from here to the Columbia river. One of their objects is to have the government declare a forfeiture of all the land claimed by the Northern Pacific along the branch from Tacoma to Portland. They claim, and appear to substantiate the claim, that the railroad never had a grant along this route. They got the right to change the main line to the Sound through Portland, but failed to build it, and the grant along the Columbia has already been declared forfeited. To settle this question, they have caused one of our prominent citizens to be arrested for cutting timber on government land, and in this way expect to get a hearing soon before the supreme court of the U.S. The government has issued no patents for these lands to the railroad company, and the question should be taken up by the government at once and settled.
“If the Northern Pacific is entitled to the land then give it to them, but if it is not then declare a forfeiture and give the settlers a chance.”
This 1893 fight over railroad land grabs mirrors today's debates about public land use and corporate accountability in the Pacific Northwest. The settlers used a test case to force a federal review, a tactic still employed by grassroots activists against monopolies in the region.
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