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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1882)
August, i8$a. THE WEST SHORE. '59 THE NORTHERN PACIFIC LAND TITLE. The reports of the majority and mi nority of the judiciary committee are mere reports. But by the parliamen tary laws of the House of Representa tives, the report of the majority com mittee, as sanctioned by common sense, has a preference in order of time and consideration. Further than rinding the title of the company to the lands granted to be intact, it made no recom mendation in the way of legislation. According to the facts as found by the majority committee, no legislation was necessary. The vain presumption of Proctor Knott, and his confrere that be cause they recommended a forfeiture, the minority resolution should be con sidered, was perfectly groundless and had no basis except that which, might be found in enmity to the Northern Pacific, superinduced by such rewards as might go upon the expense book of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, under the head of "Legal Expenses." In this connection the New York World and the Staats Zeitung. have shown a reckless ignorance, or worse, of facts in their respective attacks, not only upon the very law, but upon the de cision of the Secretary of the Interior, sustaining the rights of the Northern Pacific, under the law. We do not know what influences were brought to bear upon the New York World; but have a pretty firm idea that the Staats Zeitung has been actuated almost wholly by personal hostility towards Mr. Schurz, who as Secretary of the In terior, signed the decision showing that the title of the Northern Pacific to the lands granted could not be abridged by executive action. The New York Staats Zeitung may have a fellow feeling for its Chicaeo namesake, whose pub Hshers became most venomous towards Mr. Schurz because he refused, when a member of President Hayes' Cabinet, to recommend the nardon for said publisher, who had been convicted of whisky frauds. We have failed so tar to discover, in anv Quarter, a successful attack upon the soundness or perfect impartiality of the decision, for the very good reason that there is no standing place for such an attack. 0.1 this head we are glad to find that we are in accord with the Nw York Eve ning Post. It says : " The fact is, as has which a few years ago came before the Iuterior Department, was not whether the land grant made by Congress to tho Northern Pacific Railroad about twenty years ago could be forfeited at all by a non-fulfillment of conditions, but whether the Executive branch of the Government alone had the power to declare such a forfeiture, or whether it was bound to treat the land grant as valid until Congress should declare it forfeited. The fact is, further, not thai the Assistant Attorney-General at- tftched to the Interior Department, with regard to this question made anything plausible' to Mr. Schurz as Secretary of the Interior, but that the matter, us an important question of law, was sub mitted to the highest law officer of the Government, the Attorney General ; that Attorney-General Devcns heard elaborate argument upon it; that after maturely considering the matter he gave his opinion; that this opinion was reduced to writing by the Assistant At torney-General attached to the Interior Department, submitted to Attorney General Dcvens, approved by him, and then signed by Secretary Schurz as a rnllno ofthe Interior Department. We . - n . are informed that the lute Attorney General Devens, now a Justice on the Supreme Bench of Massachusetts, some time ago addressed a letter to a gentle man in this city setting forth these facts in detail, and claiming" for himself the whole and exclusive responsibility for that rulin?. The ruling was substan tiallv that under the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Schulenburg versus iar- riman. the Executive branch of the Government has not the power to de A land irrant forfeited, such power Vll V " O , resting with Congress; and that unui Confess exercises that power, the v..rtve is bound to treat the land 4 lvw- - - r,nr os valid. An identical ruling was made in the case or me ah. . Pacific Railroad, on which the At torney-General gave his opinion in ,l,,Marin it the duty of the Willing, " , . , Jnterior Department to treat the land n force, ine accrcu.. fi. nn discretion in the matter WICICIUH., i The large size of the land grant made .u. Northern Pacific Railroad . simply owing to the Congress which . .u- nt twentr vears ag-J a those in subsequent Congress , who Zeitung m further see that when the Interior Department ruled that it could not treat as forfeited the land grant of that railroad it acted under the direct instructions ot the highest law officer of the Government, the legal correctness of which has not been questioned in any respectable quarter; mid, finally, that the recommendations of the maioritv and the minority of the House Judiciary luminance rcier to the exercise by Congress of a power which, according to the well-known decisions of the Su preme Court, the Interior Department and the Executive generally, does not possess. been repeatedly shown, that the queition voted to increase it. No one encel I limn (he Printer In his line. All order promptly attended to. Hit work give satisfaction at all (linn, He ha now in tires l lie largcot work ever printed In the Male. I' It Hie ninth volume of Reports of the Oregon Supreme Court, hitherto inililinhcd out of the Stale, r.very lawyer need copy. Uregnn bralna houlil stnnu liy Oregon enterprise. The book will lie will to any addres on receipt of $6.oo postpaid. An enterprising newslxiy by llw name ol Galla gher ha Inaugurated furnishing tuitchn to passen gers on the Northern radix: rallroaii between Ka- lama and New Tacom i, For charge of it cla. a neatly made up and cleanly served lunch, to gether with a criiulouly clean napkin, Is brought to l lie passenger to dispose of while bowling along over one of the best roods In the United Stales at the rate of thirty miles an hour. The advertisement of Mr, Simon Hurls will be found on page 160, I lis is one of the most reliable muds bouse in the Pocitic Northwest, and we therefore recommend hurt In full confi dence to our readers. Parlie desiring musical instruments will save time ami money by dealing with Mr. Harris. Every tourist should visit the gallery of I. G. Davidson, cor. First and Yamhill sis. He ho the very best assortment and most artistically eculcd viewa of scenery throughout the Pacific Northwest. Sportsmen will find It greatly to their ad van t- ie to send to Wm. Deck V Son for Price List n .... No. to. which is mailed fri-e to all applicant. Thi-v aa aireni for the taker three-barrel gun, with which every sportsman should fumilisriie himself. The Farmers' and Mechanic' store, of Ihl clly, still continue in the lead. People familiar with iMr siialifht forward manner of coodiMiinc bus- ines always give them the preference. No aid- tie Is misrepresented, no visitor 1 urg4 to pur chase, price are marked la plain figure aa.1 are alike to alb By U me1 w ' Vumtn' ami Mechanic' Store when you are In want of cloth ing, dry goe-J, groceries or boot and shoes. K. the ver bet pb iiographs, all tlm and styles, go to AMI' Gallery, First St., between Morrison and Yamhill. TS Utiulratlon In thi umbef of TlU WlfT linns K tnre) transferred to Hone 01 printed by And the Staai-KQ.ViUiVHtr,m""mt