The day book. [volume], January 16, 1914, Image 20

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

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STARTLING DISCLOSURES SHOW BIG COPPER
BARONS TO BE SQUATTERS
BY GILSON GARDNER
Washington, Jan. 16. That there'exists no legal title to upwards of
68,000 acres of riGh copper lands now claimed and operated by the Calumet
district copper barons-is the startling disclosure which has just been dug
from the files of the General Land Office and the Department of the Interior.
This statement is verified by official records and public documents and
rests upon the authority of a congressional committee and the report of
Former Commissioner of the General Land Office Wm. A. J. Sparks and
Former Secretary of the Interior Lucius Q. C. Lamar.
On page 35 of the annual report of Commissioner, Sparks for the year
1886, appears this: ,
"Lands which had been designated by the United States as ''mineral'
prior to March 3, 1865, were excluded from the grant of lands made by the
Act of Congress of that date for the Portage Lake and Lake Superior Canal.
Notwithstanding this express exception in the granting act, upwards of
68,000 acres which had been designated by the United States as mineral be
fore March 3, 1865, including some of the most valuable lands in the cop
per range of the upper peninsula of Michigan, were certified and approved
by this department for the benefit of the Ship Canal Company. Suit was
recommended by this office June 9, 1886, to recover said mineral lands to
the United States."
In a letter dated June 21, 1886, Secretary Lamar, writing to the chair
man of the Public Lands Committee of the-Senate,- said: "I concur with
the views expressed by the commissioner and in the conclusion arrived at
by him relative td the institution of suits."
For reasons which can be guessed by persons familiar with "practical
politics" and departmental jugglery, these suits were never started: In
stead, Commissioner Sparks was discovered to be a disturbing and imprac
tical person and after an open rupture with Lamar he was ousted from the
department.
These are the lands in the upper Michigan peninsula which constitute
a large part of the wealth of the copper barons They are the lands to which
Secretary of Labor Wm. U. Wilson
has reference in his published state
ment that the company has extracted
profits to the amount of $200,000,000
on an investment of $1,250,0.00. It is
the "ownership" of these mines
which the mine operators continually
quote as giving them the right to
"protect their property" by import
ing militiamen and gunmen to -carry
on their campaign against the de
mands of the men who work in the.
mines, who are asking a living wage
and decent working conditions.
Title to these mineral lands goes
back to a grant by Congress to a pri
vate corporation which in return was
to build a ship canal, harbor and
breakwater on the upper peninsula of
Michigan on the neck of land known,
as "The Portage." As matter of fact
the company never properly con
structed the canal and works, but
when confronted with a congres
sional inquiry and a threat of for
feiture of the lands which were the
price of the work they got from the
governor of the state of Michigan a
certification that the work had been
properly done. The .company was
originally given two years to "com
plete the work, but this by two sub-,
sequent laws was extended, to eight.
On the last day before the eight
years expired the governor gave a
qualified certification, his qualifica
tion being based on the fact that the