Arizona citizen., 1877-07-28
Desert Land Entries.
We find the following dispatch in oul


 WASHINGTON, July 15.-No estimate has begun 10 state at its full magnitude the land steal under the Desert law The following figures, taken from the books of the land office here, show what principallty has been seized. The returns of the number of acres come down to the end of May.
 Visalia Land Ofiice-March, 4,713.. 92; April, 7l079.03; May, 22,790,42
 Los Angeles Land OfIice--April, l. 520; May, 3S,946.65.
 Sunsanville Land 0ffice-April, 2,S77.- p; May. 5,99223.
 Independence Land office-April, 2,759.20; May, 1,64431
 Totals Visalia, 9S,9S437; Los Ange- les, 40, ,466.65; Sunsanville, S,S6Q.95; h. dependence, 1, 4,403G0-Grant total, 152,- 72447.
 Inquiry at the land office here shows that while the Desert land Act extends over the whole Pacific coast, the only State within which entries have been made under It is California There the reports from the different Land Offices are almost entirely made up of the bulky bundles containing the re- cords of the entries. In recent con- versatiOn, Land Commissioner Will liamson laid great stress upon the fact that no title passed under the first entry under this law. An opportunity was consequently afforded during penden- cy to vacate the title by producing evidence that the land was not within the act, had not been irrigated, or had been taken fraudulently. Upon its | face, the fact that the same witnesses | had sworn to the desert character of a number of tracts was not, in his Opin. | for, sufficient to make an investigation l necessary; but if he found that this course had been extensively pursued, or pursued under circumstances of a suspicious character, he should push an inquiry into all he circumstances attendant upon the entry. To carry on such an investigation the land office had ample time, and Williamson laid renewed stress upon the safeguard which this probationary term offered As the rule of the land office, however is that no one can dispute an entry but one who proposes himself to enter the land, the grabbers appear to be ] practically secure unless their land is actually wanted by somebody else. ] If the above dispatch means that in California alone on the Pacific coas desert land entries have been made, i is wide of the truth, At the FlorncC office alone, over 10000 acres have beer entered.
 As 10 the entry of land under thi, law being a steal, it is simple nonsense and judged by tie Commissioners de clarations, all who finally get titles < lands under the law, will honestly earn them. Congress has for man!
 years given the swamp and OvertiOweC lands lo the States, because of the cos
 of reclamation being beyond the mean
 of ordinary settlers. The law givin;
 away these lands, has been greatl. abused, yet no cry has come up iron the OCT gude," |" denouncing the abust or Jaw as a steal. The desert land i not given away, but sold under tn
 present law at the same price (S1.2 per acre) as was the rich lands of tn !. country east of the Missouri river { and yet there would be more reaso and justice in Congress giving ava the dry lands which require great labo f and expense to reclaim, than in givln f away the rich swamp and overfiowe lands which in many parts Of the ol
 States are now among the most vaiui
 ble. We venture the opinion that
 those who call the entry of lands undC |. the Desert act, a steal, were ofiere Y much or little of the land for nothln ] with the condition that before recel' e ing title, they must reclaim it by pu r. ting water upon and cultivating l. they would not accept the gift, or they did accept it. they would nev' '- comply with the very important col 't dition required and therefore never g l. title. We presume instances of abu' y of thls law will occur, and so the Il have under the beneficent homestea e and preemption laws. Commission 'r Williamson seems determined that u s. law shall be strictly and honestly e t, forced, and if so done, there never W; a more wholesome land law put upc $ the statute book than this same desc
 land law