CHAPTER XIII

THE NATION AND THE STATES

"The Constitution in all its provisions looks to an indestructible Union, composed of indestructible States." JUSTICE CHASE, Supreme Court of the United States (Texas vs. White).

Guarantee of Republican Government. The Constitution guarantees to every State a republican form of government. This government must be representative. It cannot be a monarchy, on the one hand, nor on the other, a pure democracy.

Invasion or Domestic Violence.-The Constitution also guarantees against invasion and domestic violence. In case of an internal disturbance, such as a violent riot, or a labor war, or other form of domestic violence, the Federal government can act only at the invitation of the State. If the legislature is in session, it must apply for Federal protection. The governor must act when the legislature is not in session. The President may then call out the militia of other States, or may use the army and navy if he finds such drastic measures necessary.

Interstate Comity.-Each State is considered independent of its neighbors. Yet a code of State good manners, known as interstate comity, prevails among the States. It is the duty of the States, says Hart, "to act towards their sister States with courtesy, consideration, and good humor."

The Constitution adds to this the express requirement that the "citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." Thus a citizen may pass through another State, reside there, acquire property there, and use the courts there. Corporations are not citizens. They are artificial persons, and must secure permission from the State before entering and doing business there. It is, however, usual and customary for a State to allow corporations created in other States to carry on business in that State.

Extradition of Criminals.-The governor of one State may send "requisition" papers to the governor of another State, asking for the arrest and return of a fugitive criminal. There is no way to compel a governor to comply with this request. Indeed, requisitions are sometimes refused on one pretext or another, especially if there is personal animosity between the governors.

Full Faith and Credit.-"Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State." An illustration of this rule is the case where a divorce, granted to a Dakota citizen by a Dakota court on the grounds of desertion (both parties to the divorce having come within the jurisdiction of the State court), is valid in New York State, where the divorcee later removes to live, although New York State does not grant a divorce for desertion.

The Public Domain.-We have seen, in a preceding chapter, that all the States in the Union, excepting nineteen, were organized Territories before they became States. These organized territories were carved out of the Public Domain.

The title to the land of course remained with the United States and did not pass to the Territories organized upon it. And this vast area of land-some 2,825,000 square miles, or 1,800,000,000 acres has been in large part disposed of by the Federal government, and in these two ways: Gift; Sales. There yet remains in the western mountainous part of the United States about 500,000,000 acres of public lands, or an area about eleven times the size of North Dakota. Much criticism has been made of the public land policy of the United States: ignorance rather than corruption has been the prevailing weakness in disposing of the public domain.

Disposal of Public Lands by Gifts.-(1) Immediately after the Revolutionary War the United States began the practice of giving away the lands to private individuals. The soldiers of the Revolution received liberal grants. Also after the Mexican War the troops received millions of acres.

(2) Grants of approximately 100,000,000 acres have been made to the States direct, primarily for the purpose of common schools. Beginning with Ohio in 1802, the grant was one section in each township (i. e., one thirty-sixth of the public domain); and in 1853 the grant was doubled (sections 16 and 36 in each township) for common schools. Thus the States coming into the Union in later years have fared much better than their older sisters. The Federal government has not stopped with gifts for common schools. Beginning with 1862, grants have been made for the support of agricultural colleges in every State. States containing no public lands were permitted to select their share in

the States and Territories farther west. The size of this grant depended upon the number of congressmen from a State, the grant being 30,000 acres for each member, i. e., a minimum of 90,000 acres for the State. Other gifts to the States in more recent years are for State capitols, State universities, and other State institutions.

(3) But the most generous gifts of all have been to aid "internal improvements." Canals first came in for this form of aid, but failed to prosper under the stimulus. Subsidies (as the land grants are commonly called) have been extended to railroads more than to canals and education combined. To take a concrete case: The Northern Pacific railroad received a grant along its right of way, every alternate section of land in a strip forty miles wide across Minnesota and eighty miles wide across North Dakota, Montana, the northern end of Idaho, and Washington. Half the area of similar strips of land, forty miles wide, was given to the Union Pacific, Central Pacific, Atlantic and Pacific, Southern Pacific, and other roads. In this way, according to the estimates of the General Land Office, total grants of 156,893,468 acres have been made to aid in railroad construction. Some of this land is, of course, waste land, and has never been accepted by the roads. The actual amount of land patented by the railroads is, approximately, 115,000,000 acres, an amount equal to the combined areas of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. The advantages and disadvantages of this immense subsidy have been the subjects of many a debate.

Disposal of Public Lands by Sale.-The bulk of the public domain has now passed into the hands of the actual settler. Millions of homes have been erected upon it. Various schemes have been tried for getting the lands into the possession of actual farmers. Experience has taught that there are two good ways of doing this. The two ways of "taking a claim" now in common use are these—(1) Preemption and (2) Homestead.

(1) A citizen of the United States, twenty-one years old, or the head of a family if under twenty-one, may make the proper entry upon a quarter section (160 acres), and after living upon it for fourteen months continuously may "prove up" and receive a deed by paying a small price for the land. The price is $1.25 per acre; or if the land be within the strip of the railroad grant, $2.50 per acre.

(2) The second method of "taking a claim" is the homestead method. This is, strictly speaking, not a sale by the government at all but an outright gift of land to the settler. However, in certain classes of homestead lands, known as "double-minimum," there is a price, varying from 50 cents to $2.50 per acre. Any citizen of the United States who is the head of a family, or who has reached his twenty-first year, and who does not own over 160 acres of land, is entitled to enter a quarter section. He can secure the title thereto by establishing and maintaining his residence thereon and cultivating the land for a period of five years.

In the case of timber and stone lands, coal lands, silver and gold lands, etc., special rules govern, for claims cannot be taken here in the usual manner. The land laws have