The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1910-04-22
CONGRESSMAN HAMER GETS
LIEU LAND BILL THROUGH

36 in each township to the state for
school purposes. Since that time for
est reserves have been established
which included a considerable number
of the sections granted to the states
by congress for the above named pur-
poses. The object of the proposed
legislation is to enable the states de-
string do SO to select lands in
reasonal compact bodies of equal
area and value to those now includ-
ed in the reserves and have the same
eliminated from the reserves, thus
making them more desirable from an
thus making them more desirable
from az administrative view point,
both for the states and the forest SER
vice, and more valuable to prospec-
tive purchasers"
The proposed enactment will re-
move the bar to such exchanges un-
der existing laws and decisions and
will legally authorize full compensa-
ton for those school sections which
were given to Idaho upon its admis-
sion into the union. At that time
they were unsurveyed, and although
the state made application for their
survey, in order that title might be
perfected, they were withdrawn by
executive or legislative order and
| MI in hnfnra
could be done.
In his speech in support of the bill
Colonel Hamer upon the floor of the
house made the assertion, based upon
statistics at his command, that many
of the school sections included within
national forests were covered with
valuable merchantable timber, the
stumpage value alone of which in
many cases, was from $4,000 to
SIS, 900 per section.
His address in part Is as follows:
THE act admitting Idaho into the
Union contained the usual provision
granting sections IS and SO of each
for the support of the common
schools, and in case any such sections
or any part hereof had been sold or
disposed of by or under the authority
of any act of congress, other lands,
equivalent thereto, might be selected
for that purpose.
"In order to protect and safeguard
the lands so granted, the people of
Idaho prohibited, by constitutional
enactment, the sale of the same for
a less price than $40 per acre.
Idaho, in common with several
of the far-western states, has never
been able to fully avail itself of this
just and generous grant of the Ma
tional government, and this failure
is in no wise due to negligence or
lapses on the part of Idaho, the
grantee, but solely to the Affirmative
and apparently inconsistent action of
the United States, the grantOr.
''In other words, no sooner had
the grant been made by the Nation
than the state government of Idaho
began making selections under THE
direction of the Secretary of the
Interior, as provided by law, and
continued with due dispatch so to
do until the most desirable and val
liable part of the public domain
within it's borders was made un.
available for such selections by be-
ing included within sundry national
forests. BY act of congress, ap-
proved July 8, 1890, Idaho was ad
mitted into the Unon with land
surface area of 52,618,66O acres
good, bad and indi9erent--and BY
1907, 2O,O99,O29 acres of the choic-
est and NEST valuable of this mag
nificent domain were included in
national forests, and out of that
20, 099, O29 acres of forest the COM
mon schools of my state had been
granted by solemn act of Congress
and the act was a present, uncondi-
tional one-and are now in good
conscience entitled to one-eighteenth
or two sections, of each township
which amounts to 1,118,612 acres