Arizona weekly enterprise., 1888-03-17
A MASS MEETING.
The People Ofthe GiIa valley Protest against the Private
 Land Grant BElE.

Upon very short notice given last week the people of Florence and the adjacent valley asscm bled at the Court House last Saturday night to consider the bills now before Congress for the appoint ment of Comlnession to adJudicate the priv ate land grants in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. There was q very fair attendance and but single senti- ment found expression and that was in opposition to any and all special courts to determine questions of such ma9ni- tude and involving interests of such value.
 Mir. R. F. Sloan was chosen chair man and Mir. Ii. V. Jackson Secretary of the meeting, and after a preliminary statement of the objects the chair ap- pointed Messrs. Geo. W. Brown, Bo J. Whiteside and J. NJ Ochoa, commit tee to report resolutions expressive of the sentiment that prevailed. After a short absence the committee reported the the following
 RESOLUTIONS
 WHEREAS, There has been introduced into the Senate of the United States and House of Representatives bill for the purpose of establishing commission for the settlement of Spanish land grants in the Territories of Arizona and New Mexico and the state of Colorado, and
 WHEREAS, We believe that the honest and genuine Spanish land grauts in said State and Territories have for the most part been long since settled and deter mined and those that remain are all or nearly all spurious and fraudulent, and
 WHEREAS, We believe the effect of the establishment of the commission pro- vided for ill said bill would be to inde- fnitely pretract and delay the final set clement and disposition of said grants and force upon the people within their boundaries an interminable litigation with the consequent injury to the values of the lands held by them by U. $. pat ents and i'll addition result in the with drawal from settlement so m pch of the public domain as may be included with ill their limits, and
 WHEREAS, We believe that experience has demonstrated that special tribunals such as the one sought to be established by said bill to be the chosen instru- ments of fraud and corruption, and in imicable to the best interests of the peo- pie and that like experience has shown that the action of the land department of the Government and the consequent confirmation or rejection by Congress to be the safest and wisest method of dis posing of Spanish land grants. Be it therefore
 Resolved, By the citizens of Florence and the Gila Valley in Mass meeting as, 1 sembled, whose interests are directley concerned, are opposed to any change il the existing laws upon the subject oi Spanish land grants and earnestly pro test against the passage of said bill and urge upon our Delegate in Congress thai ke make every honest effort to defeat any and all bills for the creation of special tribunals or commissions to settle saiC land grants.
 Resolved that the chairman and sec retary of this meeting send copy o these resolutions to our Delegate in Con. gress, Marcus A. Smith and also copiei to the speaker ot the house of repre- tlves and the president of the Senate t. | be by them lad before their respectiv, bodies as the expression of the sentimen of the people of the Gila valley.
 The resolutions were adopted and the meetlu0 adiOurned