The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1909-08-05
CANCELLED.
Twenty Entrymen Re-
ceive Notice.
Entries Summarily Cancelled. Action
OF Commissioner of The General
Land Office Unfortunate.

The policy OF the administration ut
Washington, unrelenting and uncompro-
'nising, was brought home to number
of the projects settlers the first of
this week, when about twenty of
them, including some of the hardest
working and most deserving of the
homesteaders, received notices from
the commissioner of the general land
Office that their homestead selections
had been summarily cancelled for nom
payment Of government water charges.
While no appeal was granted it is
believed that Secretary of the Interior
Ballinger will exercise discretionary
power and upon plausible presentation
of facts from individual settlers who
are affected by this latest order, viii
revoke the action taken by the com
missioner of the land Office.
The settlers affected by the late or
der Of homestead cancellation appear
to be those who did not take advantage
of the appeal granted when notifca-
tion was served uniformly uron the
settlers OF the project who were dslin-
quent in their water charges This
notice was served by registered mail
last April, following which thirty days
were granted to perfect and forward
an appeal to the commissioner of the
general land Office. With the exception
Of about twenty settlers all took ad-
vantage of the privilege Of appeal and
represented 10 the commissioner some-
thing of the conflicting reports relative
to the water payments and the time
they became due These appeals have
not been ruled upon and the matter
is still mooted.
Locally, the action of the govern
ment is considered particularly un-
fortunate, coming as it does on the
eve of presentation of facts relative
to project conditions, calculated to
impress those in charge of government
irrigation, with the true status of the
difficulties with which project settlers
have TO contend. Could the process
of law be suspended until the congress-
ional investigation determines the
merits of the delinquent settlers con-
tentions, it is believed that harsh
measures would be eliminated in the
governments dealing with those tardy
in their payments for government
water
1t is highly probable that local
business interests will intercede on be-
half of the entryman affected by the
cancellation order and a movement is
now on foot to present a petition from
this section, asking the secretary of the
interior to suspend final action until
after the senate committee has made
the proposed investigation of local
project conditions.
When a mans home, which represents
a considerable sum of money and
several years hard labor, is summarily
taken from him, it is very likely to
shake the faith of the most charitable
in the so-called paternalistic features
of government ownership of public
utilities.
The following paragraph is a copy of
the letter from the Carson City land
office, to the various deposed claimants.
"You are hereby advised by letter
"K' under date of July 14th, 1909,
that the commissioner of the general
and office has cancelled your home
stead entry for failure to make pay
ment of any installment of water
charges for construction after due
notice as required by law, two payments
being overdue and payable,
"Your water right application has
been cancelled in consequence.
Louis j. Cohn, Register.
This paper is acquainted with the
facts as they really exist and it appears
that while the law, which is generally
complained of, is being followed, that
action should not have been taken at
this time. In one instance that has
been brougt to our attention the entry
man affected, would complete his five
years residence required by the home
stead act, next December. He invested
s1400 in improvements in the beginning
and the nearly five years spent upon
the selection represents much addition
al expense and labor. The entryman
is foreign born citizen and speaks
our language poorly and has poor
understanding of things in general.
His, with number of other cases seem
hard and the local sentiment is decidedly
in favor of doing everything possible to
assist these people in framing protest
that will secure remedial action on the
part of Secretary Ballinger.