remained set aside for them they could get it any time they wished, hence the delay in patenting the land was to evade taxes.
In regard to the sale of the land, the railroad consistently violated the terms of the grant. But since, as we have mentioned before, the land prior to 1890 was wanted mainly by settlers, they had little opportunity to make the wholesale violations that were made after that date when the government land had been sold and the forests of the middle west had disappeared.
When the Southern Pacific took control, the first thing they did was to systematize the land department. Timber cruisers were sent out and estimates were made on the value of the land. The company changed the form of deed in 1891 from that of a "grant, bargain and sale" to a "quit claim" deed.
In 1901 the Southern Pacific Company became merged into the Harriman lines and hence Harriman came into control of the land grant of the Oregon and California Company. The first thing he did was to withdraw all the land from sale under the pretense that the books of the company were in such shape that they must be examined and until this was done they would refuse to sell any of the land. The San Francisco fire aided them in this respect, for the company actually did lose in this fire many valuable records. But these at best were only pretenses, for Harriman, in a speech in 1907, admitted that this would be the permanent policy of the railroad.
The people of Oregon were not unaware of what was taking place, for in Febraury, 1907, the Legislature of Oregon adopted a memorial urging upon Congress the necessity of passing such legislation as would force the railroad company to obey the terms of the grant. The issuance of patents was from that time on prohibited and the government began the investigation of the company's actions in regard to the land grant. For nearly a year the Department of Justice investigated and finally made a
