Bisbee daily review., 1914-01-06
LANE
 BEFORE LONG
Settlers in Valleys Anticipate Visit of the Secretary and Aids to Phoenix Relative to Recent 40 Acre Order

PHOENIX, Jan. 5.-It is pretty sure that Phoenix will shortly receive visits from Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane, Chief Engineer Arthur r. Davis and 1irrigation Su pervisor I. D. O'Donneil of the United States reclamation service. The pro. posed setting Of 40 acres as the linn 1t of public land which any one man may hold under the Salt River pro ject is the reason for the coming of the men. Mir. O'Donnell. only recently appointed to be supervisor of the maintenance and operation depart. ment of the reclamation service. has gone to Washington, which is signif icant, some thing. of the fact Lane intends to start soon for Phoenix. For he would naturally choose o'Don. nell as his partner in an inspection trip to the Salt River project. seeing as the latter is 'new to the game. and would need tour of the western projects to familiarize himself with the work.
 Since the departure of MT. Newell. it is Davis turn to visit the valley. He is the least likely of the trio to make an inspection trip but 1t Is Tumored he will meet the secretary fere before January is very old. | The officials are making the trlr 1 solely at the earnest request of the farmers of the valley, who met and Crganied the Homesteaders associa- tion, just to bring this about. They were aroused at the possibility of th' secretary imposing his limitation or. der without giving the holders of pub lie land an opportunity to speak on the subjsct.
 There is no danger that the ordc
 will be enforced before the secretar,
 has made visit here. for be has spa
 sifically promised this to Representa-
 tive Carl Hayden, who spoke for thC
 hon esteaders. After the secretar'
 visits the val ey, should he decide tC
 impose the order as it was outlined
 in his letter 10 MT. Orme, 1t will be
 least six months. and maybe year
 before the looping of extra sacres car be started Prior to limiting a mans hold ngs, the reclamation service mus prepare form unit plats, must hay them approved by the direcb,r a Washington and by the general lan' office and must have them repro duced and distributed. The land oi ice here must then take steps to GU down the acreage a man holds insid
 take time so there is no immediat hurry to disposeof excess holdings On the other hand, should MT. Ian be impressed with the situation. h may not impose the order at all, or 2
 least fin modified form.
 | The fact that the duty of water wi f enter largely into the determlna.lo If farm unit for public lands wi m ke it important that MT o'Donne !, visi this city before or at the sam time as the secretary. For the comp tation of the service that water doe to the and is now in charge of tn
 department of the newly appofnte
 member of the reclamation commi
 sion.
 \ The surety board which is no
 working in two places on the pro
 lem of setting boundaries for the re
 ervoir district of the Salt River pr
 ject, is going to be rather deeply a
 tected by the orher--if any is made 7 in the 40 acre homestead propositio
 The commission must devise near m for cutting certain lands. less entitle n. to water than others. from the Iii l,. of water users. If a number of pate st es, approximating 120 acres each, al h. thrown out by the reclamation ser ,n ice, 1t will not be necessary for q
 commission to eliminate them. TT
 commission to eliminate, them. T A. commission may decide to use this Q o cess land ta neutralize as much