Arizona republican., 1903-07-04
PHOENIX. ARIZONA, JULY 1, 1903.
Spectators and the Public Domain.

SpecuIators and the Public Domain.
 During the fiscal year ended June 30. 1902, desert land entries embracing 92.923,023 acres were made. which was an increase of more than 800 per cent within five years. The figures for the fiscal year. which ended on the SOth ult., have not yet been compiled by the government, but for the three-quarters of the year completed March 31 last. there had been 4.214 desert entries, em- Der of entries for the fiscal year 1902 were exceeded in three-quarters of the year 1903. and the acreage was about so per cent of the total for the whole year previous. It is obvious, therefore, that both the number of desert entries for the year just closed and the acre age covered. exceed the totals for the year 1902. Similar increases have been noted in the entries of stone and tim her lands. A hasty study of these fig ures has led a number of eastern papers, and notably our esteemed con- temporary. the New York Tribune, to conclude that the public domain is rapidly passing into the hands of spec ulators. and there is much deploring of the situation. The Washington corre- spondent of the Tribune jumps at the conclusion that wholesale frauds have been perpetrated, and says:
 
 braced in either of the classes of en- tries above mentioned (desert, stone and timber) goes to furnish homes for actual settlers, but virtually all finds its way ultimately into the hands of lumber syndicates on the one hand and cattle companies on the other. .. That these laws. the operation of which furnishes such splendid oppor- tunities for a speculator in public lands, will, unless speedily repealed soon render the presidents policy in- effective and remove the last acre of public land beyond the reach of the home-seeker, is readily apparent"
 There is. however. but little reliable informatio on which to found q belief that great percentage Of recent land entries has been for the benefit of spec ulators. and it is absurd to suppose that the Tribune correspondent is cor rect when he says practically none of the land embraced in either of the classes of entries" to which reference is made, 'gooes to furnish homes for actual settlers. There can be no doubt that now. as heretofore, some of the public domain is falling into the possession of lumber syndicates and cattle companies, the same as in the past, through speculative entries made by figureheads for the benefit of these companies. But during the past few years the government has been more vigilant than ever before in seeing that filings on public land were followed up in good faith by actual home-seekers It is reasonable to assume, we think. that most of the entries have been by men seeking to create homes. Some evidence of this is found in the fact that for three-quarters of the fiscal year which ended last Tuesday the total number of desert entries exceeded the total number for the entire year previous, although the aggregate acre age was 20 per cent less. It is mani fest that the filings were for smaller tracts than theretofore-one of the best evidences that the land was taken for irrigation by actual settlers.
 But there are several controlling e, ( boom in land entries during the past two years has been due to natural causes that are familiar to everybody.
 Primarily, the hamburger of the American people has grown with popu- lation and the decrease of the area available for making new homes in the arable regions. This hunger has been accentcated ty the congestion of popu- lation in the cities. and so ambitious settlers have filed on land in many To- calities where the prospects are not at all promising for profitable farming. These invasions of the public domain beyond the lines of adequate rainfall seem to come in circles, and the mex perience of the settlers has led thous- ands of them to take 1t for granted that water for irrigation would be available when the facts were all against them. The good times through out the country have also been a fac tor. Men of small means, having ac- cumuiated some money. are ambitious to own homes and have pushed farther west. Another potent cause for the