Arizona republican., 1913-03-15
PASSES
 NEW LAND BILL
Continuing Present Land Commission Two Years More Before Termination But May Not Pass the House

As far as the senate is concerned the state land commission, in spite of the criticism to which it has been subject ed, will continue as at present consti- tuted for the remainder of the present administrative term after which it will be reduced to one member, outside of the governor and the attorney general. who will be known as the state land commissioner This was the decision as expressed in senate bill 75. intro duced some time back by MT. Davis of l the public lands committee of the sen 1 ate and which was placed in the hopper of the land committee with many other | bills
 | It seemed as if there would be no l division on the bill in the senate when | it came up yesterday. It is true that 1 the bill has been amended largely from 1 the bill that was first introduced, but at that it provides money for the pres ent operations of the land commission l and for the operation of the body until the end of it's present term of office l All this of course depends upon wheth- CT or not the house sees the thing in ! l ] is not likely. The house of repreSen- 1 tatives has not been in the habit of | seeing things in the same light as the senate, nor in the same glasses, but by ! many it is thought, that because the bill terminates the offices of additional state land commissioners at the end of December 1914, that this will be a satisfactory compromise on the propo- siton of complete change now.
 It is generally admitted that a change now. after all the months Oi organizing the work of the commission that has gone on, and just as the com mission is putting forth earnest anC rapid efforts to select the lands as provided for by law. and when the commission by reason of the months that have been devoted to the actua survey and appraisement of the lanC 1 and it's Improvements, is in d position to be of very effective and valuabl, service to the state, that it would b' the heighth of impropriety to turn in ant cut off additional appropriation for thu
 conduct of the office and the work tha has been laid out with so much care thought and effort.
 : The passage of this bill by the hous will mean that the land commission
 will be able to continue operations a once. Without it's passage the work O . the commission will stop with the clos
 of the business day today. The aprop
 riation has run out. The legal continu
 ance of the commission terminates be
 cause the statute under which the com
 mission operates requires that the com
 mission shall hold office until the da
 of adjournment of the next regular ses
 sion of the legislature This law wa
 passed and approved on May 20 las
 At that time the next regular sessio
 of the legislature was expected to b
 held on the second Monday in Januar
 1913 which would have been the Mon
 day January 13 The siXty-day terr
 of that legislature would have expire | at the close of the legislative day O
 March 15. which is today.
 This of course is all constructive.
 has been generally understood that tn
 present session, in view of the opinio | of the supreme court is both a specia
 and regular session If it is specia
 session the land commission can go o until the regular session conveneS tw years hence, but if it is to be regarde
 as regular session the land commis
 sion sure enough terminates today
 Under the provisions of the Davi
 bill. the present land commission hold
 ever. but after the present two year
 expires, and at the general election i 1914 commissioners must be elected wh
 with the governor and attorney genera Il constitutes the commission. The chic E clerk of the thus organized and com
 prised commission will receive a salar
 of $2OO per year. while the commission
 CT will get s3OOO. This bill was req
 twice yesterday under an emergenc
 and passed with only Slime in opposi
 tion. MT. Sims in explaining his vot l. said he believed the bill clouded tn l. issue therefore he was against it
 The committee of the whole in tn senate was considering the tax bi