Arizona republican., 1912-09-22
State Land Commission Is Away Upon a Seven Months Automobile Tour Looking Over Situation From Afar
FARMERS RETAIN
 JUDGE CARPENTER
To Work With Committee of Settlers and Land Com mission in an Attempt to Rapidly Clear the Atmos- phere


 The state land commission is away in the eastern portion of the state in | a brand new AppersOn fOrty-fiv horse power automobile looking the state | school land situation over, and work i ing toward the railroad to the north. and sending daily reports to the of i flee of tha commission in this city. These reports contain the valuation of | the land upon which settlement has | been made, together with various other | data that will probably be useful to 1 the commission at the end of their long | task. It is estimated that the pres | ent trip will taKe seven months un- 1 less some untoward excitement brings 1 the commission hotfooting it back to 1 Phoenix before the expiration of that l time.
 And in the meantime, things are | seething in Phoenix. There are large 1 number of farmers in the Salt River | valley with land under the reclamation 1 project here who lease their lands from l the state. These are a portion of the 1 school lands. and since the settlers ! upon these lands have no title to them 1 they shortly expect to run into all 1 sorts of perplexities in getting water l from the reclamation service. There is also a movement through | out the state which was headed dur 1 ing the session of the legislature by ! some of the delegation from Cochise I county to pass such legislation as
 would forever prohibit the state from 1 disposing of these lands. This was op- l posed by the Maricopa delegation on l the ground of the difficulties that would be encountered by the men who l were now on the land had improved 1 it. and were entitled to buy the same 1 should they so desire. Fiiibuster after 1 filibuster characterized the closing
 sessions of both the regular and called l sessions which resulted in postpone ! ment of any definite action along these 1 lines.
 l Tn the meantime, also, there had l been passed a bill creating the present l land commission which was instructed ! to investigate the situation, select the | government lands that are 10 be ced- ] ed to the state. report at intervals to | the governor and finally arrived at a i supposed solution of the veXed ques- | ton to tell the legislature about 1t at l the next session.
 Soon after the commission took of 1 flee they went ahead and formulated l plan whereby the status Of the sett- 1 lers upon school land could remain | pretty nearly in the same situation as | it was prior to the opening of the con- l troversy, by the method of taking up | all the leases on the lands and issuing | in their place permits, to stay upon the 1 land at a rental per acre.
 The fear that the permit system is | but a forerunner to permanent lease | system for all the lands of the state l has taken possession of many of the 1 farmers and several meetings have been held in Phoenix at which various 1 of the Maricopa county statesmen i have been called upon to explain them- l selves, and to state whether they were for a permanent title with the state | or a proposition to give the farmers 1 and settlers an opportunity to pur-
 chase the lands upon which they have | located for some years and which they l have spent money in improving. 1 Another meeting of this sort was 1 held yesterday when a report was re- | ceived from committee. appointed at 1 a previous meeting, upon I plan to | pursue to clear up the situation. Pres l ident John P. Orme of the water us- l CTS association presided at the meet l ing. The committee reported in favor 1 of retaining an attorney to present the
 matter favorably to the land commits I sion and to cooperate with that body
 in clearing up the foggy atmosphere.
 This agreed to, and a resolution passed to retain Lewis T. Carpenter, | assistant attorney general, who repre- I scented the landowners protective as-
 sociation before the recent congrssion- l al investigation of the expenditures of 1 the interior department in the Salt 1 River valley.
 Mir. Carpenter is now in Texas upon i an errand of personal business and
 was not expected to return for some
 time, it was however decided by the 1 meeting. to wire him at once urging
 him to return forthwith and lend his
 aid to the valley farmers. In company
 with MT. Carpenter. a committee of
 the school land lessees will meet with
 the land commission and endeavor to establish a permanent status for the
 settlers.
 It is understood in connection with
 the present permit system rrae t1e
 land commission has announced that
 it has no intention of doing anything
 that will be in the nature of a hard | ship o he present settlers, that unless the situation is clarified and a solution