El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-12-03

recently pointed out Arizona has nearly 5000 900
y Of state land which, under present conditions
land and the constitutional prohibition against sale lease
Of than section $40 acres to any applicant
makes It impossible dispose Of this land to cattemen
They cannot section alone unless happens to lie
tributary to other lands in which they title
lessee and practically all such instances they have
their purchases leases. This leaves great body
Of land idle and without prospect Of either to the
state any individual It has been urged that the
legislature at It's next session should submit TO the people
state constitutional amendment raise the pun
chase leasing limit Of state lands from to ten sec
TONS which would permit sockmen to buy or lease enough
state land to provide an adequate for at least small
herd.
New Mexico has not this problem now but is threatened
with Under the state constitution, there prohibit
ton against sale leasing of much land buyer de-
sres While Arizona has sold but acres of state
land New Mexico has sold 100000 largely because Of the
absence of these restrictions The New Mexico land
mission has received IN the past year S2OO0 from the
sale and lease of state lands of which 100000 came from
and the remainder from leases These and other fig
may be considered authoritative, nasmuch they
have been furnished to The Herald by the New Mexico land
office Of which Robert P Ervien IS commissioner. The
comparisons with Arizona made by The Herald the
basis Of these figures and statistics from the Arizona state
land department.
Against New Mezico's s1125Ooo annual income from
sales and rentals may be placed Arizona of So 425
from leases S4s750 instruments purchases and
sse e59 from interest on deferred payments The differ
marked 1t might be argued that since New Mexico
was first TO receive statehood its land department was
sooner engaged dspOsng Of state lands and therefore
has time advantage Of Arizona. But the other hand
It must be remembered that Arizona has marked ad-
Congress fixed the minimum at which state lands might be
sold s. east Of longitude los and So
west That places about half of New Mexico in the S.
minimum class while all Of Arizona is in the So
class As matter OF fact in the sale of $4,000
state land the New Mexico office received an aver
age price Of S658 acre
New Mexico is threatened with Arizonas problem
because of well authenticated reports that agitation
under way bring before New Mexcos next legislative
session limiting sales and leases to maximum
Of section, which Is the very limitation which Arizona
recognizes the need of abolishing.
The argument favor Of the limitation is advanced that
without the restriction relatively few Of may
step and buy great of land as rapidly as they can
produce the money, thus acquiring for themselves most of
the 125O00 Of state land and deprvug citizens c.
small means from obtaining land.
The argument IS faaCOus however, ought instantly
to be apparent when considers that the investor
VIII have al the opportunity he wants for the years
to buy New Mexico land It is estimated by the land COM
missioner that It VIII take 30 years sell the at
present rate Furthermore the small investor buy now
for the terms fixed with his financial ability in mind
If he wants to buy section Of the minimum land It
viii cost him total Of $780, of which he needs 10 pay IN
cash at time Of purchase but $780, He then has 80 years
to pay the balance the rate of sf01 year. with four
percent interest the unpaid portion. The terms are
tainy liberal anyone desire both as to install
ments which smaller than any private land enterprise
could afford and interest which half the usual rate