by the actual marking of the boundaries and the construction of station houses, side tracks, etc. This we need not decide. But the fourth section of the act provides a method for securing the benefits of the act in advance of actual construction. Prior to the initiation of any right here involved the Land Department put in force certain regulations to be followed by railroad companies desiring to secure the benefits of a grant in advance of actual construction, as provided by the fourth section of the act. One of these required that upon the location of any section, not exceeding twenty miles in length, the company should file with the register of the land district in which the land lay "a map for the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, showing the termini of such portion and its route over the public lands," etc. Another of these departmental regulations provided that "if the company desires to avail itself of the provisions of the law, which grants the use of ground adjacent to the right of way for station buildings it must file for approval, in each separate instance, a plat showing in connection with the public surveys, the surveyed limits and area of the grounds desired." These regulations require that "a copy" of the approved map of "definite location," and of the "approved plat of grounds selected by a company, under the act in question, for station purposes," shall be transmitted to the register of the land office where the land lies. Upon the receipt of the map of alignment, the land office is required "to mark upon the town-ship plats the line of the route of the road as laid down on the map," and to note in pencil on the tract books opposite the tract of public land cut by said lines of railroad, "that the same is disposed of subject to the right of way," etc., and to write upon the face of any certificate disposing of said lands, after the filing of such approved map of location, "that it is allowed subject to the right of way." A like duty is Opinion of the Court. 225 U.S. put upon the register when an approved station ground plat is received. The plat of the station grounds selected by the railroad company in this case was filed in the local land office on September 12, 1888, and reached the Secretary of the Interior on September 20, 1888. Both dates are antecedent to the filing of the preëmption claim. But the selection pended in the office of the Secretary of the Interior until December 15, 1888, on which date it was approved. While thus pending the preemption right of Reed was initiated. There can be no doubt that the provisions of the fourth section, for securing in advance of construction the benefits of the act, have application to the station grounds, as well as to the right of way proper. The "benefits" to be secured cover one as well as the other. The prerequisites for securing either right, in advance, is the filing of a map of location, whether it be for a right of way or for station grounds. But until approved the appropriation stands suspended. The act of 1875 confers upon the railroad company the "right to take" from the public lands adjacent to its right of way, ground for station purposes. This "right to take" in advance of construction, is subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior. When, therefore, the railroad company has exercised its "right to take" a particular tract for station purposes, by filing a survey and plat of the ground selected, the Secretary of the Interior is called upon to interpret the law under which the right to take is claimed, and to determine the lawfulness of the taking, as of the time when the right was asserted by the filing of the plat and survey. When he acts and for the Government consents, by approving the plat, his approval operates to give effect to the grant, the land upon which it operates being thereby definitely determined. Therefore it is that a claim by another initiated pending his conclusion is cut off, by giving effect to the approval as of the date when his action was invoked. The principle is that which has been many times applied in conflicting claims to indemnity lands, under railroad land grants. In such cases the patent, when issued, is held to relate to the date of the filing of the railroad company's list of selections in lieu of place lands lost, thereby defeating adverse rights initiated after the actual filing of the list of selections. The same rule has likewise been applied to lists of selections made by States to which a grant has been made subject to location. In both classes of cases, it has been many times ruled that while no vested right against the United States is acquired until the actual approval of the list of selections, the company does acquire a right to be preferred over such an intervenor. In other words, the patent, when issued, relates back to the initiatory right, and cuts off all claimants whose rights were initiated later. The question was fully reasoned out and the cases reviewed in Weyerhaeuser v. Hoyt, 219 U. S. 380, and we can add nothing to the conclusiveness of that case. But, it is said that the doctrine of relation does not apply to the benefits to be acquired under the fourth section of the act of March 3, 1875, because a railroad desiring a right of way in advance of construction must do three specific things: first, make a definite location of its route; second, file a profile map of its line with the register of the land office for the district; and third, obtain the approval of that map by the Secretary of the Interior; and that the act makes each of these things a prerequisite to the acquirement of any right, by expressly declaring that "thereafter all such lands over which such right of way shall pass shall be disposed of subject to such right of way." In Minneapolis &c. Railroad v. Doughty, 208 U. S. 251, the question was whether a homestead application filed Opinion of the Court. 225 U.S. after the railroad company had surveyed and staked out its route across the quarter-section claimed, but before the road had been constructed or its map of location filed, was entitled to preference over the right later secured by the approval of a map of alignment, following the route which had been staked. The claim was that the approval by the Secretary of the Interior of the map of location related in date to the date when the route was staked out, and thus cut out the homestead claim. This court held that the mere surveying and staking of a route was not such actual possession and appropriation as to give effect to the grant and bring the case under the authority of Jamestown & N. Railroad v. Jones, 177 U. S. 125. The distinction and essential difference between a mere staking out of a route, which, being the act of the company alone, is changeable at its will, and actual construction, which necessarily fixes the position of the route and consummates the purpose for which the grant of a right of way is given, is very obvious, and was carefully pointed out in the opinion of the court in the case referred to. Another point was involved and decided in the Doughty Case, namely, that the approval of the map of alignment by the Secretary of the Interior would not relate to the date of the surveying and staking out of the route. This was manifestly so, since that survey and staking was subject to change at any time before the permanent line was located by the filing of a map of such locations for the approval of the Secretary of the Interior. Therefore it is that the doctrine of relation has always been applied in reference to the date when the official action of the Department was invoked to confirm the location thus permanently settled. These points were conclusive against the railroad company and were the only questions for decision. The case was therefore rightly decided. But that case does not control this. Here we are required to say whether a preëmptor whose claim was initiated while the Secretary of the Interior had under consideration the approval of a map of station grounds thereby obtained a right to be preferred. True, this approval did not occur until after the rights of the plaintiffs in error had been initiated; but the patent to the preemptor did not issue until long after that approval. Upon what principle can it be held that the grant, which, under any view of the case, is prior in date to the patent under which plaintiffs in error claim, is subordinate in right as to the overlap? Neither should the case of Railroad v. Doughty be regarded as construing the fourth section of the act as holding that pending the approval of a map of final location, any right may be initiated which will be superior to the title which vests upon such approval. No such question was involved in that case. What is said in the opinion about the grant of a right of way being dependent upon the doing of three things-location of road, filing profile of it in the Land Office, and the approval thereof by the Secretary of the Interior-and that "thereafter all such lands over which such right of way shall pass shall be disposed of subject to such right of way," refers to the non-vesting of any right as against the United States, and not as denying the priority of right in the acquisition of the premises as between parties growing out of priority of application. Any construction of the fourth section of the act of 1875 which would permit rights initiated while the Secretary of the Interior was considering the approval of a map of location of a right of way over public lands, or a plat of survey of depot grounds, to prevail over rights resulting from the prior commencement of proceedings for the acquisition of title, would be in conflict with the settled practice of the Land Department and the repeated rulings of this court under other acts. Shepley v. Cowan, 91 U. S. 330; Weyerhaeuser v. Hoyt, 219 U. S. 380. Any other conclusion would lead to great confusion and |