Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-07
DESERT RIGHTS
TO BE DECIDED
QUESTION OF TRANSFER BY
ENTRYMAN INVOLVED
GOVERNMENT HOLDS SETTLER
HAS AN EQUITY
U. S. Supreme Court VIII Also De-
termine Whether 1t Is Crime
to Craze Sheep In the
Forest Reserve
Associated Press1

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6.-Attorneys
on both sidese of the controversy are
preparing for the final determination
by the supreme court of the United
States of the long -mooted question
whether rights to desert land entries
may be transferred before reclamation
has been made.
A case involving that point has been
set for argument before the court
February II. At the same time the
court is to hear arguments as to
whether it is a crime against the
United States to Craze sheep in forest
reserve without permission of the gov
ernment
The question of the right to transfer
a desert land entry arises in a criminal
prosecution. William II. Hammers of
Southern California was indicted in the
federal court for the Southern District
of California on q charge of commit
ting perjury in an affidavit made in
the interest of Beulah Rose Becker,
to the effect that improvements of a
certain value had been made on desert
land in Imperial county, California.
In defense it was set up that the
land in question had been entered by
Granville M. Boyer August IA, 1907,
at the land office in Los Angeles, and
that the attempted transfer of his
rights in the land August 26, 1907, to
Beulah Rose Becker, was void be-
cause the right to make such transfer
was not possessed by Boyer. 1t was
argued that as Boyer did not possess
such right the affidavit of Hammers
was immaterial.
The district court sustained the de-
Tense and the government appealed to
the supreme court.
The question of the ability of an
entryman to transfer a desert land
entry has been considered by the court
before. On the previous occasion the
court held that, under the desert land
act of 1877, the entryman had no right
which he could sell or transfer.
Holds Entryman Has Rights
The governments contention in the
present case is that, under the desert
land act of 1891, such a right is given
the entryman.
1t is said that thousands of persons
who have obtained their land by trans
fer under the desert land act of 1891
will be affected by the decision. This
is regarded as particularly true of
the Imperial valley in California.
Whether it is a crime to Craze sheep
without permission in forest reserVa-
tion has arisen in the indictments of
Pierre Grimade, J. p. Carajous and
Antonio linda, sheepmen of California,
who are charged with having grazed
their sheep, without the permission of
the government, in the Sierra forest
reserve in California.
These indictments were all brought
in the federal court for the Southern
district of California.
BY act of congress, approved June a.,
1897, the secretary of the interior, and
later the secretary of agriculture,
was directed to make provision for the
protection Of the forest reserves. 1t
was provided that any violation of
the provisions so made should be pun
ishable according to the revised stat
utes.
In 1906 Secretary Wilson promul-
gated a regulation requiring all per-
sons to obtain a permit before grazing
animals in a forest reserve. 1t was
by reason of alleged violations of this
regulation that the indictments were
brought.
Attorneys for the sheepmen con-
tended, however, that the act of 1897
was void, so far as it attached penal
ties to any violation of any regulation
thereafter to be made, because it
sought to provide a penalty for crime
not completely defined. 1t was also
argued that the act was an attempt to
confer legislative authority on an eX-
ecutive officer. The court sustained
the defense and the government ap-
pealed