Arizona republican., 1915-06-08
House in Committee of Whole Takes Up Substi- tute Bill, Which Has En- dorsement of Majority of Land Committee. FAIR PROGRESS
 MADE THUS FAR Hope of Leaders That House Will Have Little Difficulty Agreeing Upon a Measure - Senate in Attitude of Waiting.

According to program, the house in the committee of the whole yesterday afternoon took up the subject of land legislation, the committee on public lands having reported out all the measures before it, including those that had been referred to it and a substi tute upon which there had been an agreement by the committee. That agreement, however, did not commit all the members to the bill in it's present form and the right to offer amend ments on the floor was reserved by a minority of the committee
 But it was understood that it should be the basis of the bill on which the house should stand.
 When the reading of the ibll was begun, with MT. Graham in the chair, there was an understanding that amendments might be offered to the sections as read or that after the con clusion of the reading or during that process, members might revert to any section that had been passed over for the purpose of offering amendments. At the close of the day thirty seven of the 119 sections of the bill had been gone over.
 So far no serious objections to the bill have been developed. Two or three amendments that were calculated to alter materially the structure of the measure were voted down by majori- ties that appeared to be decisive; at any rate, they appeared so decisive that divisions were not demanded
 The first section of the bill is de- voted to a meaning of the terms used in the bill. The second section pro vides for the creation of a state land department which shall consist of the governor, the attorney general and the state engineer. This department shall appoint a state land comm issioner who is to be clothed with the powers of surveyor general and that subject to the control and direction of the state land department, the commissioner shall have charge of. and administer the state lands and shall. exercise the powers and perform the duties sub sequently described in the bill A single change of verbiage not affect ing the purpose of this section was un- animously agreed to.
 The next section gives the commis sioner power to appoint a deputy who shall act as secretary of the depart 1leHl, d CIlleI CleTh, d Cnlel man and such other clerical help as may be needed. Originally the bill provided that no one connected with the department might be interested in any state lands or their products. That provision was changed to prevent the subsequent requirement of any inter est in the state lands An attempt was made in vain to strike out the clause providing for a deputy commits Sioner.
 The salaries fixed by the next sec tiOn are as follows: Commissioner, S3600 a year; deputy commissioner, $27O0; chief clerk, s240O; chief draughtsman, S1SOO; stenographers and clerks. s1200. It should be stated that the salaries mentioned for all officials or employees other than commissioner and deputy are maximum salaries They may be less. The commissioner shall require the deputy and all other employees to give bond Here there was slight change in the bill which left that discretionary with the com missioner. The travelling expenses of the commissioner and deputy are lmi- ted to $6,O0O a year.
 The next section provides for semi annual reports by the commissioner to the department and the four ensuing sections relate to the seal, the powers O, the commissioner: his, authority to
 (Continued on Page Eigh)