The Holly chieftain., 1904-04-01
LATEST NEWS FROM WASHINGTON
Land Law Decisions.

In the Senate Mr.. Gibson spoke for
his bill for the repeal of the desert
land, the timber and stone laws and
Of the commutatiOn clause Of the home
stead law, He contended that our
remaining agricultural lands should be
held exclusively for actual settlers and
that the timber belonging to the ma
tion should be properly cared for. and
as it is required, sold at its true value
This reform can only be accom-
plished, he said, by an absolute repeal
of the desert land act, of the commu-
tation clause of the homestead act
and of the timber and stone act
Mr.. Gibson argued that frauds are
made possible by all these laws. He
quoted the land decisions of the In
| terror Department as showing that in
! 1877 as much as 34,95S acres of land
| had been entered in California under
| the desert land law for the benefit of
| ]. 3. Haggin. and" he added. i am
| informed that desert land entries for
the benefit of Mr.. Haggin and his as
| sociates exceeded 300, 900 acres" An
| other instance was given in which AS
| 600 acres of land was entered in Wy
| oming by residents of eastern states,
| who Immediately turned the land over
to land company without having even
| been on It.
Senator Gibson denied that the re-
| peal of these laws would seriously
! cripple the irrigation fund, since il
now aggregates $50 1000. 900. including
| land filings to date, and will be fur
| ther increased by sales of coal lands,
! timber, etc.
The bill was allowed to lie on the
| table until April 5th, in order to per
nit further discussion.
The House public lands committee
authorized favorable report on MIR.
Bonynge's bill donating l20 acres of
! land in Yuma county to the Beecher
| Island Battle Memorial Association.
| This tract is to be used for the purpose
of establishing a park commemorating
| the battle on the island between early
| settlers and Indians.
The House committee on merchant
marine and fisheries authorized a IA
| vOrable report on the Frye bill, extend
| ing the cOastWise laws of the United
i States to the Philippine islands July
| |, 1905, without amendment The vote
| was seven to five, two Republicans and
! three Democratic members making up
! the minority vote. A motion to post
! pone the operation of the laws to 1909,
made by Mr. Lucking. was lost on a
| strictly party vote: another motion
making the time 1906 resulted in tie
vote. The bill was then voted on as
| it passed the Senate. Mr. Lucking en-
! deavored to amend it by a require
ment that all vessels in the trade
| should be manned by American or
| Philippine sailors, but this was lost
| by a party vote.
| The United States Supreme Court
has decided that persons travelling on
! railroads may not secure damages in
| case of accident when they ride on
| passes. and the decision went to the
extent OF applying the principle to
! such passengers as were not familiar
with the contract usually printed on
| the back of passes. The case decided
was that of John D. Boreing and his
wife, Merlin Boreing, VS.. The Chesa-
peake Beach Railroad Company. Mrs.
I Boreing was injured in an accident on
| the road while travelling on a pass Is
! sued to herself and her husband con-
| tanning the usual stipulation of eXemp-
| tion from damage. 1t was urged that
| she had not been made aware Of the
| stipulation and that even if not liable
/ on general principles the company
must be SO on account OF her ig-
norance. The court did not accept this
! view.
The states of "Oklahoma" and "Ari-
| zona" are created in a. bill which has
| beeen completed by the Republican
members of the subcommittee Of the
| House committee on territories. The
! Democratic members Of this sub-com-
mittee have been placed in possession
Of the bill and after they have con-
sidered it for few days, meeting
Of the full subcommittee will be held.
The two states ma0tioned are com
| posed of Oklahoma and Indian Terri
tory as "Oklahoma" and Arizona and
New Mexico as "Arizona." The ad-
| mission of the latter two territories is
not delayed by any restriction of law,
but may be effected as soon as a con-
vention can be called to form a state
constitution. The bill provides, how
ever, that Oklahoma and the Indian
Territory shall not be admitted as a
state until the year 1906. By that time
all the Indian lands will have been
allotted.
During the discussion of the sundry
civil appropriation bill in the House,
Chairman Heminway summed up the
fiscal condition for the next fiscal
year, showing that after all legitimate
expenses had been paid there would
be s22000,000 surplus for the year.
Mr.. Heminway estimated the annual
expenditures for 1905 to be s597, ,S02,-
324. To this sum must be added the
interest on the public debt, estimated
at $84 ,971 500. The revenues for the
year, he said, were estimated at s704,-