Imperial Valley press., 1910-11-19
Specializing Contests Defeated In Raids On Improved
 Desert Claims
Act Passed in Response to Imperial
 Valley Demand Operates to Con-
 firm Titles of Assignees in Good Faith and to Discourage Contests.

cf he local Land Office that were ren- dered before the passage of the Act of June 25, 1910 and which have been taken up on appeal, say the Los An geles Times of Nov. II, the General Land Office is giving active demon stration of the policy of the govern ment to protect settlers who entered Imperial Valley in good faith.
 Formerly the local Register and Re- ceiver had no alternative to cancel a claim when evidence was produced to show that a fraud had been con- | mitted in making the entry. Persons who purchased from original entry men, no matter what consideration passed, were likely to lose all they had put into the property, provided the land had not been patented to them For the purpose of protecting as- signees in good faith and actual re- chalmers of desert land from black mailing and speculative contests, bill was prepared in Imperial Valley and sent to Senator Flint about year ago, and after much tinkering, amending and mutilating by land office attorneys and committees, an act was passed by Congress on June 25 1910, providing for equitable treatment of innocent purchasers of assigned en- tries. The act provides that the as- signment which is regular on the face of it and is made in good faith, when the assignee has no notice of fraud, shall be valid and the holder of the homestead or other claim taken up under the desert land acts shall not | be deprived of the property
 | The reversals in no way reflect on the local officials, as their decisions were made before the new act was passed and they decided according to the law at the time of the contest. l Notice was received by them on Nov 10, that their findings in the con- test of Sigel E. Skinner against liar rison M. Bowker, as assignee of Louis c. Green, for the complaint had been reversed on the ground that the act of June changed the law.
 Skinner instituted the contest on the ground that Green had fraudently made the original entry, alleging that he lacked two years of being 21 years old, that he had received $10 for mak- ing the entry and that none of his money had been expended in reclaim ing the land.
 When the evidence was reviewed in the light of the subsequent act of Con- gress,, it was found that BowHer was protected by it as it was not shown that he was in any way concerned in the fraud, if there was one, that the proper development work had been done when he took possession and that he had expended $71OO on the land.
 Skinner has since been indicted by the Federal grand jury on a charge of having procured false evidence in con- nection with proof as to certain claims in the valley.
 Information concerning another Im- perial case, received at the Land Office bore the signature of Secretary of the Interior Ballinger.
 The letter was in regard to the con- test of William R. Walls against Annie Weaver, Benjamin w. Shacklett and John D. Snider. A review of the de- cision of the Register and Receiver in favor of the defendants was denied.
 The case is unique because of the fact that Walls has made four attacks on the title of the holders of 320 acres of land, Each of the first three times he was too late by small margin of time and the fourth time the govern ment took such action as to thwart him.
 Shacklett filed contest against the property, which stood in the name of Annie Weaver, on January &, 1909. Walls made 3 similar attack, setting up the same grounds in his affidavit, but not until the next day.
 Mrs, Weaver filed a relinquishment on January II and on the same day shacklett filed homestead application for one-half of the land, having a prior right on account of being the original