Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1909-09-28
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ARE NOT DEMANDED
Though the Land Laws Are Rigid
They Are Enforced With
Reason.

In no department of the government
fidelity or with closer attention to the
actual letter of the law as well as the
spirit of it than in the land office
since the cleaning up of recent years
A generation ago when one wanted a
piece of government land about all he
had to actually do was to take il and
go through a little formality of utiliz-
ing it and living upon it either by per-
son or proxy. But the governments
liberaiity was so much abused 1T
brought about a reform that has
eliminated about all the elasticity that
naturally exists in a law, and when
requirement is made of a settler in
these later days it means what it
says. 1t is even dangerous for man
to lie and bear false Witness two in
dustries that became quite extensive
in land matters.
But even with all this reform. which
is doubtless none too thorough or Sc
we're, evidences are at hand in every
quarter that the officials of the gov
eminent do not wish to be oppressive
and do not intend that the technicali-
ties of the law shall work failure OF
reward to honest effort. When one
does the best he can and has actually
complied with the spirit of the law,
expanding the effort required. even
though results are not always such
as expected, the settler is usually
given all the best of it. Such a settler
for instance as the woman who is try,
ing to prove up on a homestead in
this valley, and who a week ago re-
fused at first to go to a hospital when
suffering from a dislocated shoulder,
doubtless will not by that particular
misfortune jeopardize her rights by
temporarily leaving the land if she re-
turns when able. That such unusual
circumstances are given consideration
by the government is illustrated in the
following incident told in a recent
telegram from North Yakima. Wash:
Although she did not comply with
all the requirements of the United
States land department with regard to
residence and cultivation, Mary Alice
Cone has been permitted to prove up
on her homestead, she having given
every evidence of good faith. When
Miss Cone filed on the homestead. near
Sunnyside some seven years ago she.
had to take care of her crippled father.
as well as make her own living She
had been teaching school and she had
accumulated little money, with which
she made the first payments. She
used up nearly all her money in a
fruitless endeavor to get water upon
her land by Pumping. Finally she was
compelled to leave the claim for time
In order to teach school in Tacoma
and earn little more money Be
cause she could not show continuous
residence her claim was disallowed by
the general land office
THE members OF the Sunnyside
Water Users association became ac-
quainted with, the facts and sent
petition TO the general land office, re-
questing that an exception be made
In her case and that she be allowed
her claim There was no question that
In reality she had worked in good faith
ana was entitled TO the homestead.
This Is the way in which Fred Dem
nett, commissioner in the general land
office at Washington, looked at it: He
believed that woman who would face
all the trials and prfvations as she had
done in order to secure a homestead
was entitled to it, and he has accord
ingly reversed the former ruling and
has admitted her final proof