, 1918-05-16
BoUT s4o-ACRE HOMEsTEADs.
Congressman Mondell Replies to Petit
ton Regarding Status Of Entries
Under the 64O-Acre Law.

congressman Mondell has sent the
| allowing letter to a Wyoming constitu-
ami who petitioned him regarding the
| stock raising homestead law. 1t ex-
nIoins the present situation i'm detail:
II have the honor to acknowledge re-
| ceipt of a petition, addressed to the
nrrsident of the United States, urging
action looking to the allowance of ap-
nlirations under the 640-acre home
.tead act of December 20, 1915. l shall
fake pleasure in transmitting the petit
tiou in question, and at the same time
shall do all l can to hurry up the al
lowance of the applications for lands
now classified, as well as the classifi-
cation of other lands, in order that all
applications may be speedily passed
upon.
ut is to be regretted that we were
not able to amend the 640-acre home
stead act as l tried to do, so as to make
the work of designating lands under it
more simple and therefore more
prompt. Under the enlarged homestead
act we made provision for blanket des-
irnations, under. which applications to
enter were seldom delayed. The graz
ing homestead bill | introduced contain
ed the same sort of n provision 1 had
written into the enlarged homestead
law, but the 640-acre homestead act
which was reported contained the pro-
vision in regard to classification, which
has been causing all the delay, as /
warned them at the time 1t would.
Under this unwise plan of classifi-
cation there is required, so the land
officials think, an examination of every
tract applied for and of every tract
used as a basis for an additional home
stead entry, and much time has been
consumed to the great loss and injury
of many of our citizens. By dint of
constant urging we succeeded in getting
some examining parties in the vicinity
Of Gillette and Buffalo last fall, and
the reports of these examinations have
at last been made up, and over one
million acres of the lands thus kan
ined will be subject to entry as soon
as the notices can be sent out by the
local officers.
Within the past few days 1 have
been assured by the director of the geo
logical survey, who has charge of the
work of classification, hat he will in
the very near future have parties
enough in the field in Wyoming to
classify this season all the lands that
have been applied for, so that all en-
tries can be allowed some time this
season or at the latest next spring. l
realize this is a long time to wait, but
will the exception of the million acres
now examined and classified and re-
ported and some further area to be
reported very soon, / fear this is all
We can hope for at this time. If the
survey keeps its word, all lands where
applications have been made will be
ready for entry some time this year..
The director of the geological sur
vey appeared before the subcommittee
of the committee on appropriations, of
which l am a member, this morning,
and gave every assurance that the
work of classification would be speeded
up. In addition to the parties now in
the field in the Douglas and Cheyenne
districts, parties will very loon be in
the field in all parts of the state.
in justice to the geological survey
it should perhaps be said that on the
declaration of war practically all the
forces of the survey were sent to the
South Atlantic and Gulf coasts and to
the Pacific to do surveying work asked
for by the military authorities and
many entered the military service. This
compelled them to make up new parties
Tor classification work at a time when
many men were going into the army. A
further difficulty, however, lay in the
various provisions of the law which ne
ceSsitated a detailed examination OF