Imperial Valley press., 1908-02-01
LAND OFFICE RULING
 GESTURES SETTLERS
Mutual Water Companies Taking Steps to Present Case to Commissioner and Request Such Modification as Will Protect the Actual ReCIaimerS of the Desert Fl Cenro Chamber of Commerce Will Act

It is the purpose of the mutual water companies of Imperial Valley 10 send representative to Washing ton to urge the Commissioner of the General Land office to reverse his recent ruling restricting desert land claimants to one entry or one assign ment, regardless of the number of acres claimed, and l. w. Gleason, for mer president of Water Company No. 1, has issued public statement pur- porting to explain the effect of the ruling and the objections to it's en- forcement.
 Alleged Precedents.
 MT. Gleason says:
 For five years we have been ad- vised by the officials of the Los An geles land office that any one could qualify as an assignee so long as he did not acquire title to, or hold by assignment, more than 32O acres of land at any time.
 'This practice has been sustained by the general land office at Wash ington by the approval of numerous assignments to parties who had pre- viously made entry under the desert land law or received a prior assign ment and in many cases two or three patents have been issued to one party.
 "The practice of taking duplicate assignments or assignments after en- try, has been so general that this rul ing if maintained would destroy the title to at least 100000 acres of our best improved farms, worth at least $50 per acre, and the owners of $5,- O00,000 worth of property, acquired | and improved in good faith, upon the advice of the highest obtainable au- thority, would have no means of pro- tecting their property against claim jumpers and contestants, except with | the rifle, and without doubt many of | them would resort to that kind of | protection before they would be driv- en out by thieves"
 Effect of New Rule.
 So far as the new ruling affects l bona f1de settlers and reclaimers of | desert land, it appears to be incon- sistent with the intent of the desert land act, which gives the right to acquire by reclamation 32O acres of land. If acquisition of a claim to 40 acres is held to exhaust all rights of entry and assignment, the ruling seems to be tantamount to new legis- lation annulling the act of Congress, and legislation is not one of the func- tions of the Land Office. But the rule is in line with the policy of the Reclamation Service, and the act governing it's operations, reducing the area of claims and promoting closer and possibly the intent of the Land Office in making the rule was to harmonize practice in all des- ert land cases as closely as possible.
 After the Grabbers.
 But it is also plain that the Land Commissioner has in view the notor- ous practice of speculation in entries and assignments, which MT. Gleason says has been encouraged and ap- proved for five years. If it be true that the Land Office has permitted my one to qualify as an assignee so ong as hel did not hold more than 320 acres at any time" the Land Office has ignored the spirit and in- ent of the law and allowed persons o do Indirectly what the law plainly orbids them to do directly, that is; require and hold more than S20 acres )s desert land
 The words "at any tn,e gre tho yey that appears to have unlocked he door and opened the way to raud and unlawful speculation. Were hose words contained in the advice