Arizona republican., 1913-12-19

partment and have obtained certfi-
 cates that will permit them to as
 sign their excess holdings for a
 compensation. The same is true of
 almost half of the entrYmen under
 the Yuma project But the unfor-
 tunate entryman who has not to
 date succeeded in having his proof
 accepted will be forced to relnquish
 aH above 40 acres to the United
 States and can receive nothing for
 his improvements He may have
 cleared the land; leveIed and bor-
 dered and ditched it. He may have
 built fences and houses at great eX-
 pense while waiting for the water to
 come but there is nothing that he
 can do except to select the particular
 20 acres that he will retain as his
 home
 If the order fixing the farm unit
 is delayed for another year and the
 contemplated lateral system is fully
 completed under each project. at an
 early date. then most of the entry
 men in the second class will be able
 to make the proof required by law.
 Certainly within two years practical
 lv every one would be able to save
 his right to sell his excess holdings
 To issue such an order imm ediately
 will therefore. cause great hardship
 to many worthy settlers who. through
 no fault of their own. have been un- able to comply with the law and
 they are the very class of men that the department ought to be the most anxious to assist
 Section of the Reclamation Act reads
 1..t. f,,.t f..r, |, tie secretary of the interior that anl irrigation project is practicable he may cause to be let contracts for
 the construction of the same....... and THERETPON he shall..... linn i. the area per entry. which limit shall represent the acreage which. in the opinion of the secretary. may be reasOna bIY required to support d family upon the lands in question: In the years 1903 and 1904 the | secretary of the interior did deter 1 mine that the Salt River and Yuma ] projects Were practicable and he did ! cause contracts to be let for their construction. He did not however,
 limit the area per entry as provided by the act IL may be that he was advised that under the law he must 1 permit homestead entries under these projects. but certainly he could not have been criticised if. following the | plain and mandatory provisions of ! the act he had written a letter to l the local land officers in Arizona di- recting them not to receive entries 1 of more than 40 acres for public | lands included within the limits of | the Salt River and Yuma projects. | The entrymen would have been help ! less because his filing would not have ] been received for q larger area ] Ii may be argued that the secretary | could not obtain satisfactory infor- ] nation. at that time. upon which to 1 hase q decision as to the size of the | farm unit. It is the same land the same climate and the same water was running in the streams. Large areas i of land had long been in cultivation under both projects All the neces- 1 sary data could have been quickly i assembled. It was his duty to make l some kind of a decision and his fail ure to do so gave every entryman 1 the right to believe that ultimately 1 he would receive q patent for all of 1 his entry.
 It will certainly not be claimed that the author of the Reclamation | Act or any member of congress who 1 voted for it had in mind that the | word "WhereupOn" would be con- | strued to mean ten years nor will ! any reasonable man insist that fl l was the intention of congress that 1 the provision fixing the farm unit 1 should be retroactive. By what au- 1 thority of law did the department i say to the entryman You may en- | ter 160 acres of land subject to ! reduction in area at the pleasure ot | the secretary of the interior There l may be q technical answer to this | question but it certainly is not such ar answer as would occur to the 1 mind of the average hOmesteader. To my mind it was the plain duty Of 1 the secretary of the interior in order l to protect the rights of prospective l entrymen to determine the area per l entry at the earliest possible date. l This he failed to do and the prospec-
 tive entryman therefore lost that l which ought to have been preserved 1 for him and which could have been ! preserved without doing injustice to l anyone It is too late now because 1 in the meantime the actual settler | has been upon the land and thus acquired equitable rights which in all 1 fairness ought to be recognized
 The maps which 1 exhibited clearly l demonstrate that most of the home stead lands in the Salt River and l Yuma Valleys are located on the l outskirts of the projects at the great
 est distance from the towns TailrOa q