Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-24
YUMA LINE STILL
STANDING "PAT''
HOME SEEKERS WRITE To
PROTECT INTERESTS
INTERESTING INSTRUCTIONS Ex.
PEcTED FROM WASHINGTON
Those Who Have Inspected Land
Say They Will File Contests
Should Any Other Per-
son File Application

The fate and staying qualities of the
Zine" of 1853 Yuma land homeseekers,
who are lodged in an old store room
at 31S West Second street, may be de-
termined this morning when Register
Frank Buren, of the Los Angeles branch
of the United States land office opens
his mail. In the first delivery of the
postman Register Buren, hopes to re-
ceive instructions from Secretary of the
Interior Ballinger how to conduct the
parceling of the Yuma land allotment.
Whether these instructions will con-
tain any notifications of the ruling
that the line which formed in front of
the Chamber of Commerce building
February II, will not be permitted to
be served with the forty acre land par
cells as first comers," is not known
to Buren. He is inclined to the opin
ion that the secretary of the interior
has not changed his ruling, and that
the 159 men and women who came from
many states to stake their lot in life
on a forty acre ranch will have to
take chances with several hundred 9TH
er landseekers.
The secretary's instructions were
scheduled to arrive yesterday, and
Register Buren prepared to follow them
without delay, and rent a hall or a
desire to file applications. When the
eastern mails were delivered and the
instructions were not in the mail car
rier's hands, the land register informed
the inquirers from the line" that the
morning mail today should contain the
desired information.
In the interim, the men and women
who have made their 159 fortunes
unit, are banded in an agreement to
stand pat" and fight for what they
believe are their rights. Those who
selected their parcels declare they have
not dropped their intention to file con-
tests should any other person file an
application which conflicts with the
parcel he or she has inspected.
These will appeal to Secretary Bal
linger, and if he does not sustain their
contentious the contest will be taken
into the federal courts.
Here, as in all communities, there are
"troublemakers. When the would-be
colonists are not discussing their trou-
bles with Secretary Ballinger, they or
rather about 154 of them, are engaged
in conjecture as to the identity of five
of their number. One of these men
has informed several of the land seek
ers that he is holding a place in line
for another. He declined to give the
name of the man he is acting for. This
man and four others are associates in
the temporary home of the homeseek-
ers, but they hade not, is was said,
contributed to the common fund or
ganized to pay the rent and provide
light and heat.
1--WE do not know the identity of
these men," said a member of the pub
licity committee. "They may be here
in the interest of real estate Specula-
tors, and four of them may be bona
f1de homeseekers, but I doubt it. One
of the five admits he is proxy but he
refuses to name the person of corpora
tion he represents. Neither he nor
his four companions has contributed
toward the common fund.
"Of course we do not plan trouble
for them here as we have burdens of
our own to bear, but 'pikers' are not
welcome in any community. We think
we know what kind of neighbors these
people will be, and If we are fortunate
in obtaining the land we seek we will
know how to protect ourselves and our
neighborhood interests"
The only deserters from the nightly
vigils the homeseekers have maintained
in the old store room since the police
removed the cline" from the street,
have been the women, but they are not
deserters in the sense that means dis
grace. They were advised by their
men relatives and associates to seek
comfortable quarters until the question
of the Yuma allotment was decided.
Tuesday night each of them sought
more comfortable places to rest, and
last night the men again had the store
room to themselves.
A wag in the crowd has furnished
amusement for his companions by past
ing on a window page from news
paper supplement. The page pictures a
stream of persons, men, women and
children in all walks of life and from
all lines of business, who are obeying
the injunction. Back to the farm"
Each person in the picture has been
given the name Of a member of the
"liner's" official family.