Imperial Valley press., 1909-08-14
Appeal From Decision That Would Protect Settlers
 From BIackmaiIerS
Plaintiff Pearson Files Document in Which Register of Land Office is Ac- cused of Pettifogeing and of Bluff ing Would-be Grabber Out of His "Rights" to Other Mans Property.

Recently Register Prescott, of the U. s. Land Office in Los Angeles, re- jected a lot of contests and decided that there was no fraud and no sub stantial violation of law in the mak- ing of a desert land entry on a claim that had been improved and irrigated in Imperial Valley. The egister said:
 From absolutely innocent causes many entries of lands upon which thousands of dollars have been ex- pended have had to be relinquished and relied upon.
 This has been the practice ever since the first settlement of the val ley. The present Register and Re- ceiver and their predecessors have concurred or given no sign of warn ing or dissent. It has become a fixed policy and under the circumstances justly so. To have auopted another would have been ruin to innocent peo pie and against the facts.
 ''The Imperial Valley has suffered from vicissitudes. It is question however whether the complications heretofore had there would equal in disaster the confusion into which ti- ties would be thrown were this charge that reclamation was too well and too promptly done accepted as ground of cancellation"
 In conclusion, the register charac- terized the persons seeking to oust settlers from improved farms as "un- considerable and blackmail1ng con- testants."
 In September, 1901 one Rust made homestead entry number 9655 on quarter section near Holtville. He re- claimed and cultivated the land, bought water stock, and made the place his home. For four or five years the land was watered, and at least three-fourths of it was cultivated.
 In July, 1907, Rust sold his claim for several thousand dollars to AL bert Fuller He might have proved up the homestead and then turned 1t over, but Rust was scrupulously conscientious and felt that he could not make the requisite affidavit of proof in view of the agreement to sell. Therefore Rust relinquished his claim to the government, and by hold ing back the water stock he brought 1t under the ruling of the Land Of- flee which treats land separated from water stock as having reverted to des- ert.
 Fuller then filed a desert claim on the farm, bought the water stock, proved up and paid the government for the land. Thus Fuller paid for the land twice, and the, government received more than it would have re- ceived had Rust proved up his home stead.
 Fuller's farm was one of the tracts involved in the contests recently re- jected by Register Prescott. The ground of contest was the strictly technical point that the land had been reclaimed when Fuller filed his des- ert entry. The contestant was Harry B. Pearson, Jr,, City Engineer of El Centro, who has been a resident in the valley little more than a year.
 Contestants turned down by Reg ister Prescott were allowed thirty days in which to appeal from his decision. Pearson has filed an appeal, being the first of the batch to take that course, and shows thereby an intention to persist in his etfort to get for noth-