Albuquerque morning journal., 1910-12-04

Estate shall accept the land on the
terms offered, and the enabling ACT
provides that we can get them upon
no other terms. What better protec-
Ition can the lands haVe2 The United
States donates the lands and At Us
own expense protects them ana the
proceeds thereof.
Section 6 of the enabling act also
provides
THAT the grants Of sections ?, 16,
80. and SO, to said state, within ma
tional forests now existing or pro-
claimed, shall not vest the title to said
sections in said state until the part q
said national forests embracing any OF
said sections is restored TO the public
domain; but said granted sections shall
be administered as a part of said Tor
ests, and at the close of each fiscal
year there shall be paid by the secre-
tary of the treasury to the state, ils
income for its common school fund'
such proportion Of the gross proceeds
of all the national forests within said
state as the area of lands hereby
granted to said state for school pur-
poses which are situated within said
forest reserves, whether surveyed or
unsurveyed. and for which no IN
demnity has been selected, may pear
to the total area Of said sections when
unsurveyed to be determined by the
secretary of the interior, by protrac-
tion or otherwise, the amount neces-
sary for such payments being appro-
priated and made available annually
from any money in the treasury not
otherwise appropriated.
The United States forest service
officials, located in this CITY, give the
total area Of forest reserves in New
Mexico to be 1874, ,304 acres, or IA .
per centum of the acreage Of the ter
tla.a Tor
ritory being 7S,3S0,603 acres, accord
ing to the above authority. about one
seventh of our common school lands,
or over one million acres are reserved
for an indefinite period.
Mr.. Ferguson says, why not walt,
say. ten years" before selling? That
is just what the constitution pro-
vides, except lands contiguous to other
state lands, or lands that viii sell for
ten dollars per acre.
The reason given by the committee
on pubic lands for reporting that
school lands contiguous TO other state
lands might be sold before the eX-
piration of ten years, was, that sec
tion of school lands might foll with
in a large area OF Rrazlng lands and
no cattie or sneepman would care to
buy the grazing lands unless he could
control the whole area. This com
mittee. which contained such able
democrats as A. H. Hudspeth, G. r.
Brice and A. II. Harllce, reported IN
favor Of this article with the repub-
lioans and il is reasonable 20 suppose
that II there were 'jokers' In il they
would have discovered them. The en-
ablng act reads. LANDS east Of the
line between ranges and 10 east of
the New Mexico principal meridian |
shall not be sold for less than five /
dollars per acre. and lands west OF
said line shall not be sold for less |
than three dollars per acre. and no |
lands which are or shall be susceptible |
of irrigation under any projects now /
or hereafter completed or adopted l
under legislation for the reclamation /
of lands, or under anv other project 4
for the reclamation OF lands. shall be 1
sold for less than twenty-five dollars \
per acre (the line mentioned above
lies about one hundred miles east Of
Under such terms aud restrictions
it will be most difficult to sell any
large portion Of the lands within the
next twenty-five years. in the opinion
Of the best judges IN the territory.
II makes an the differe nee imagin-
able between cold. hard facts and
figures and vague hailucinauons.
L. S. SLOWER.
December 3. 1910. 4