Arizona republican., 1913-03-11
Discussions of Roberts Land Leasing Bill Providing for Fourteen County Boards Show Signs of Coming Strife
DAVIS AND WOOD
 ARE AGAINST TT
House Does Much in Com mittee Acting on Eleven Bills and Refusing to Change Certain Parts of Penal Code

When the senate adjourned yester- day afternoon, and the committee of the whole, presided over by Senator HubbeU of Apache, rose to make a re- port the body was in the midst of one of the fierCest land fights of this or any other session. The squabble that had been long predicted was at hand. And the fight upon the school land and state land question had begun. As was the case in every other fight. where an arbitrary lease land policy is being laid down, the Maricopa senators, Wood and Davis were in the forefront of the scrap. which they hoped will end in the establishment of that sort of policy for the administration of the school land of the state that Wlli al- low of the sale of some portions of the lands. especially those portions under reclamation systems. the value of which is being Curtailed and the fruit fullness of which is being hampered by both an uncertain policy and a policy of continual lease. It must not be taken from this that Wood and Davis were lined up in favor of the measure under discussion. On the contrary they were violently opposed to it and expressed themselves as of the opinion that no bill yet introduced dealing with the land question and no policy yet devised on that important factor in the state wealth was so dangerous or so likely to be misdirected to the detri- ment of the state and impairment of the states assets.
 The bill under discussion was Rob erts land bill No B in the senate. which is an act amendatory of the acts passed by the former session of the state legislature defining and prescrib- ing the duties and powers of the state land COT mission. This Roberts bill provides pr the appointment in each county of a county treasurer, county recorded and county assessor to con- stitute a land leasing board. which shall immediately prepare leases for each piece or parcel of agricultural land and grazing land, the agricultural land to be in tracts of not more than 16O acres and the grazing land in tracts of not more than 64O acres. As soon thereafter as possible these county leas- ing boards are to give notices of pub lie auction of leases at the county seat of each county.
 Leases are to run for period not to exceed five years, and notice of the lease auction is to be published in a paper nearest the land so offered for sale once a week for a period not less than five consecutive weeks. The ap- praisement of this land is left to the land commission as well as the prepar- atiOn of blanks. All the indefinite in determinate non administrative work is left to the land commission. The land commission is permitted to do the clerical work, while the fourteen diff ferent boards in the fourteen different COunties-siXteen with the two possible new counties added-are allowed the administration of the states greatest asset.
 Tt is the expressed purpose of those who favor this measure to provide a temporary arrangement for the ad ministration of the public lands. Such may be the intention. If So it fails of it's purpose. It reaches too far in ef- feet to be temporary. Anyway I am not in favor of temporizing. The tenn pOrize now is to multiply the loss to the state that is accommodating through lack of definite policy and administration To temporize means additional tax burdens. and loss of revenue to the schools said Senator Davis.
 Wood of Maricopa comments were even stronger than this. He said il looked to him like a scheme to rob the
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