misrepresentation of facts, or such a mistake as affects the substantial rights of parties, it may be set aside, or a trust declared, and a conveyance decreed by a court of equity, to be made to the party entitled. Another fine opportunity for founding a permament landed aristocracy was given by the State in her management of swamp and overflowed lands. The speculator, having seen that the State proved a better nursing mother to his interests than the United States, was interested in getting the largest possible quantity of land under her jurisdiction. The Surveyor-General says: . “The conflicting claims of the State and the United States for the past ten years, have rendered uncertain the title to a large amount of land sold by the State as swamp and overflowed. Surveys for a large amount of land which the State had previously sold, have been received—the re-survey having been made by the second party apparently on the hypothesis that the original sale was illegal. There are also many conflicts caused by two or more surveys having been made for the same tract. In such cases an appeal to the courts is necessary. A large area of land has also been surveyed and returned to this office as swamp and overflowed which is not shown to be such either by State segregations or United States maps.” Lands are so held to-day, which cannot be cultivated without irrigation. * Under the possessory law of California, which allows both individuals and corporations to make some temporary enclosure or abode good for a possessory right, pre-emption settlers have been kept and driven away. Tracts of from two to twenty thousand acres of government land are thus held by State laws. Even the tide-lands have not been safe from the operations of the grabber. The Surveyor-General says: "In some cases “ long, narrow strips were surveyed by the owners of the adjacent high lands, to protect themselves; but often these surveys were made in the interest of parties who did not own any land in the vicinity, evidently with the view of obtaining control of the water front." More than seven hundred and fifty thousand acres of Eastern Agricultural College Scrip has been located in California. Realizing too little from the munificent scheme of the national * The reader who desires to know inore of this subj_et is referred to the “Reports of the Jint Committees on Siamp and Overflowed Lands and Land Monopoly," presented at the Twentieth Session of the Legislature of California. government, to keep such colleges above board, in many cases not over fifty cents an acre, the grant has been a questionable blessing; it may be considered as a tax put upon the settlers of the new States to support the colleges of the older and richer ones. The Agricultural College Scrip of California was located under special privileges, and has been sold for five dollars an acre. Who were the holders of this scrip, or to whom some of the best timbered lands in Humboldt and other counties have been sold for five dollars an acre, the public have never been informed, the property of the University being administered as a private trust. The University has a special officer in charge of these lands, given solely “for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts.” The grants made to railroads of California have been as follows: To the Western and Central Pacific of ten alternate sections, on each side, per mile, (12,800 acres;) to the Southern Pacific, ditto, with ten miles on each side, from which to make up deficiencies; to the Stockton and Copperopolis of five alternate sections on each side, and twenty miles on each side, in which to make up deficiencies; to the Texas Pacific, and to the connecting branch of the Southern Pacific, ten alternate sections, with ten miles for deficiencies, made in the year 1871. The greater part of this land is unsurveyed, and the settler upon the government sections must take his chances whether he gets upon it or not. Settlers who have purchased of the railroad are few; the best farming lands having been sold to “Land Companies,” who, it is asserted, stand in peculiar relations to the railroad. The railroads are in no haste to sell, foreseeing the inevitable rise in the value of their immense property. The effect of all these monopolies is to keep lands out of the hands of the army of industrialists who would flock to God's country by hundreds of thousands, could this pressure be removed. The following list, or “Blue Book,” of our Land Peerage, is taken from Hittell's Resources of California, and other reliable sources. The reader is referred to the reports of the Board of Equalization for further details: 9 Those who own from 100,000 to 500,000 acres (some of which is in scattered tracts): Wm. S. Chapman.... 350,000 Miller & Lux, from 228,000 to 450,000 Gen. Houghton, Ex-State Surveyor, estimated from 200,000 to. 300,000 300,000 141,000 125,900 150,000 146,000 200,000 120,000 160,000 101,000 97,000 77,000 63,000 71,000 69,000 47,000 88,000 47,000 56,000 42,000 53,000 44,000 60,000 51.000 43,000 45,000 48.000 49,000 47,000 49,000 42,000 48.000 53,000 48,000 47,000 42,000 41,000 54,000 44,000 Number of estates over 44,000 acres, forty-four; between 30,000 and 40,000, twenty-three; between 20,000 and 30,000, fiftyfive; between 10,000 and 20,000, one hundred and forty-eight; and between 5,000 and 10,000, two hundred and thirty-eight. The entire number of estates over 5,000 each in extent, is four hundred and fifty-three. Let us see how these large land-holders are assessed. An unjust discrimination appears to have been made in the assessments of taxes in the State between farming and grazing lands, even where these were lying side by side. Great SALES AND ASSESSMENTS. 303 bodies of unimproved lands have been put down at mere nominal rates, while the farmer who plows, sows and reaps his two or three hundred acres sees assessments raised upon his labors at the rate of three or four hundred per cent. Enormous quantities of lands owned by the monopolists are assessed at one half or even one fourth the value at which they are being sold. W. C. Ralston's lands were assessed at $2 00 per acre in 1871; Miller & Lur's at from $1 00 to $1 50 per acre; Isaac Friedlander's land was assessed in 1871 at $2 00 per acre, while he sold the same year to Chapman & Montgomery 28,850 acres for & $115, 145; $4 00 per acre. Experience has proved that the laws of competition and enlightened self-interest have not been a sufficient check upon the tendency towards railroad monopoly through concentration; and we shall find that our laws of inheritance and the natural fluctuations of property will not abate the evils, and prove a sufficient check upon land monopoly. A general feeling prevails that land investments are the safest as well as the most profitable, when obtained as so many of ours have been with a trifling outlay of capital. The tendency to concentration is the natural one as the value of land increases; and it is especially dangerous where the processes of machine culture can be carried on as advantageously as in California. “We are not only putting large bodies of our lands into the hands of a few persons, but we are doing our best to keep them there. Our whole past policy is of a piece—tending with irresistible force to make us a nation of landlords and tenants, of great capitalists and poverty-stricken employes.” The remedy is to be found in changing the mode of taxation, and in a revision and honest administration of our laws in the interest of the whole people. CHAPTER XIX. WATER MONOPOLY AND IRRIGATION. CANAL AND WATER COMPANIES, HOW AUTHOPIZED—LEGISLATION FAVORABLE TO MONOPOLIES-LOS ANGELES CONVENTION-VOICE OF THE PEOPLE-Gov. DowNEY'S ADDRESS—MEMORIAL OP COLORADO TO CONGRESS--CONGRESS APPOINTS IRRIGATION COMMISSIONERS FOR CALIFORNIA-MR. BRERETON'S VIEWS OF AGRICULTURE IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY-CONCLESIONS ARRIVED AT BY THE COMMISSIONERS. UNDER “An Act to authorize the incorporation of companies for the construction of canals, for the transportation of passengers and freights, or for the purpose of irrigation or water power, or the conveyance of water for mining and manufacturing purposes, or for all such purposes," approved May 14, 1862, and another Act, bearing date April 2, 1870, nearly all the waters of California, now required for irrigation, are controlled by corporations or private individuals. An Act of Congress, approved July 26, 1866, provides: “That whenever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of the water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes, have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowledged by the local customs, laws and decisions of the Courts, the possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same, and the right of way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes aforesaid, is hereby acknowledged and confirmed.” Under these laws, a large amount of capital has already been invested. It is easy to see how a monopoly may spring up under their protection, and grow to such great proportions as seriously to retard the agricultural development of the State. The reader will remember that one of the most important questions which has come before the State Grange, is that of water monopoly and irrigation, and that the efforts of the Patrons to secure desired action of the Legislature of 1873, proved unavailing. In the autumn of that year, a convention had been held at Los Angeles, for the same object, and had adopted the following preamble and resolutions: Whereas, In our rivers and mountain lakes, there is a large amount of water not utilized, which if properly developed would irrigate a large area, and thus greatly enhance the taxable values of our agricultural lands; and, Whereas, Our mountains are pierced with numerous and convenient cañons, |