Evening star., 1925-06-21

Uncle Sam owns so much land that
every once in while he wakes up
and finds he has some hundreds of
acres he didn't know anything about
as, for example. only few days ago
when surveyors of the General Land
Office discovered" some AS acres in
Bayfield, County. Wis, along the shore
of an inland lake. The original sur
vey made in 1859 described this land
as a meandered lake. SO Uncle Sam
Is going to open up these Ais acres of
lake-shore sites to homestead entry by
ex x-service men of the World War.
This AIS acres is a mere bagatelle
when YOU stop to realize that Uncle
Sam has more than 1856 604 600 acres
of unappropriated and unreServed pub
lie lands In the United States proper.
of which some 129, 900, 600 acres have
been surveyed and about 58,000,000
acres have not vet been even sur
Veyed
Why, in the Territory of Alaska we
have nearly $50, 100000 acres more.
and besides all this there are 10 ma
tional parks, about which a previous
article was written in this series. and
90 national nonume ntS-all under the
jurisdiction of the Department of the
Interior.
Uncle Sam is also engaged on 25
reclamation projects, with several more
in contemplation. There are 210 In
dian reservations, with a total of H.
992, ,667 acres. So while our cities are
growing more congested and fighting
for life against serious traffic condi-
tons, there are still great open
spaces-millions upon millions of
acres-untracked by the ubiquitous
"f1ivvers."
What does Uncle Sam do with this
great public domain? Five years ago
,;.ot,
@pphes to oil, gas, coal, oil shale,
phosphate and sodium-so that these
natural resources can be made avail
able for use, under proper safeguard
p&the public interest.
~Three years earlier a potash leas-
ing law was passed. Other minerals
such as gold. silver, etc, are disposed
of under the old mining law Of 1872,
which has been frequently amended
to meet changing conditions.
The remaining public domain is
chiefly valuable for three purposes:
The principal financial value is found
In the minerals and the receipts there
from under the general mining laws
and the leasing acts.
Second in Importance comes the If
rtgible and irrigated areas, which are
subject to reclamation under the gen
eral laws passed by Congress. and
known as the Carey act
The third principal value-and this
is not in conflict with the other two,
because it relates to lands that are not
susceptible OF irrigation, and the use
will not interfere with the mineral
developments for grazing. In
terms Of acres the grazing areas cover
the major part Of the public lands.
The records of the General Land
Office showing receipts from the dis
posal of public lands are very inter
estinS. Ten years ago these receipts
were S3,93S,S17. In 1919 the receipts
had dropped down to S2,915,8 892. After
the passing of the general leasing law
in 1921, the receipts climbed up to
more than $4,000 900, and last year
they were well over SIS 1000, 900. The
Alaska coal leasing act brought in
$19,205, the potash leasing act S25 ,069
and the general mineral leasing act
1851 Estimating a total of S44,-
905,508. That amount has been dis
tributed, IN accordance with the law.
as follows: To the States within which
the minerals were produced, S1i i,S51.-
604; to the reclamation fund, S20,463, :
$50. and 10 the United States Treas
ury 50. .546 ,093.
While real estate values are soar
ing in our great cities, there is still
considerable demonstrating being done
on Uncle Sans far-f1ung lands. The
larger percentage OF the entries are
for Stock-raiSing honest eads. under
which they may take $40 acres which
are supposed not to be suitable for
agricultural purposes but suitable for
grazing lands. and theoretically these
$40 acres Of grazing lands are Suffi-
cfent TO support a family.
Agricultural lands in the public do
main are about exhausted, outside of
the limited areas which may be re
claimed through irrigation, except in
Alaska. where very little is yet known
as to the possibilities.
In addition to these public lands