Arizona republican., 1921-03-07

increasing the population of home owners and home builders. Naturally, this cannot be accomplished by ma-k- ing the rich richer or by adding prop
 erty and wealth to those who already have an abundance It can only be
 accomplished to the benefit of the state by assisting those who lack and
 who, by virtue of circumstances and environment over which they have no control .are unable to overcome the many obstacles to becoming a home owning resident.
 Every normal man has, inborn, a desire to own and possess a tract of land on which to build a home and actually live a normal life. Our law
 must foster and encourage this, but beyond the point of helping a person to get a starting point the individual must therefore shift for himself. This state is interested in aiding those in need, but not to the point of aiding
 one in his acqusitive desires in con tradistinction to his needs. With this in view, then, one who has already once acquired a tract, be it $40 acres of grazing or 160 acres of agricultural, has had what the state offers and has exhausted his rights to any further aid along the line of purchasing state lands. one cannot purchase both $40 acres grazing and 160 acres agricul- tural He may purchase one or the
 other, but not both. Conversely, our
 laws do allow one to purchase up to that amount and one should be allowed to buy from time to time until he has bought the full amount allowed. similarly our state land laws should not be interpreted to encourage speculation in state land One must l not be allowed to indiscriminately grab any considerable portion of state
 land under the guise of contracts to l purchase, and then be permitted to 1 sell or assign his contract to purchase 1 Therefore a purchase under our laws
 must be interpreted as not only the ] actual buying and paying for the land and obtaining a deed, but also to in l clude the acquisition of any interest
 under contract to purchase: in other words, one who has entered into a l contract to purchase either 160 acres of l agricultural land or $40 acres Of graz
 ing land has been given his opportuni- | ty and would appear to have exhaust cd his rights to other or further pur-
 chases. Otherwise he could sell his contract rights at profit and thus proceed to accumulate wealth to the
 detrirnent Of those to come now and l later on, who, as real pioneers and workers, will or do need bona fide 1 homes.
 One contracting to purchase state
 land ordinarily would not be entitled
 to again contract for or purchase addi- ] tional state land and the same inter-
 pretation would apply to an assignee
 of contract, he having placed himself l in a condition to purchase land. or ] anyone else who has put himself law i fully within the means of acuuiring ] state land Once having put himself in 1 the way Of acquiring state land. whetk
 CT by deed. by contract ts purchase, or 1 by assignment of contract to purchase he would thereafter be barred from | further acquisition by purchase ot state land beyond the amount allowed by law.
 ! Further in my opinion, the Iega l date of purchase is:
 "Ffrst-The date of the signing ot
 the contract to purchase.
 "Socond-The date of the assign ment of the contract to purchase. 'Third-The date the land is strucl off at auction
 II ''W. J. GALBRAITH, l Attorney General"