and scrip granted to States and Territories for educational and other purposes"; also to "Swamp and overflowed lands," page 47.

RECENT LEGISLATION.

The generous care of the Federal Government in its provisions for the perpetuation of our free institutions in the new States extends equally to the individual citizen. By reference to the legislation secured during the Congress that has just expired the liberal policy of the present administration toward the home seeker upon our public domain is demonstrated in a marked degree. It is doubtful whether in a period of the same length of time so much was ever accomplished before to render available the resources of our public domain, and at the same time make the acquisition of title less burdensome to the settler.

Without regard to acts of Congress of local and purely remedial character, but taking those equally applicable throughout the publicland States, a few deserve more than a passing notice. Among these

are:

(1) The act of April 14, 1914 (38 Stat., 336), making provision for the issuance of an unrestricted patent where theretofore patents have been issued to entrymen limited to surface rights only, and subsequently the lands so patented have been classified as noncoal in character.

(2) The act of July 17, 1914 (38 Stat., 509), entitled "An act to provide for agricultural entry of lands withdrawn, classified, or reported as containing phosphate, nitrate, potash, oil, gas, or asphaltic minerals." By this act the conservation of our valuable mineral resources is accomplished, and at the same time the surface of the lands within which such minerals are found is subject to appropriation for agricultural uses. The farmer and stock grower can make full use of the land included within his entry, or purchase, under a title that excludes the mineral deposits therefrom. In the absence of legislation of this character the known presence of mineral in public lands would exclude it from all appropriation except under the mining laws. By this act an exceedingly important step has been taken toward securing an effective conservation of our public domain without interfering with the present and profitable use thereof.

(3) One of the most important acts of the late Congress, and most far-reaching in its beneficent character is known as the extension act of August 13, 1914 (38 Stat., 686), by which the time for the payment under reclamation projects for the water rights was extended from 10 to 20 years. This substantial reduction of the annual installments permits the entryman to employ his caiptal to a

much greater advantage in preparing his land for cultivation and securing the necessary implements and stock for the proper development of his land.

(4) The enlarged-homestead act was amended March 3, 1915 (38 Stat., 956), so as to permit an additional entry thereunder to be made, although proof may already have been submitted on the original. The original enlarged-homestead act restricted the right of additional entry to cases where proof had not been submitted on the original entry, and to that extent made a distinction which was regarded as an unnecessary limitation as to the rights of homesteaders who had theretofore made entries and submitted proof thereon.

(5) The increasing difficulties which are encountered by desertland entrymen in securing a sufficient supply of water to effect reclamation of their land, due to the general appropriation of the waters in all of the smaller streams is recognized and provision made therefor in the act of March 4, 1915 (38 Stat., 1138), granting a further extension of time within which the entryman can show compliance with the desert-land law or secure an entry of the lands by perfecting his entry in the manner required by the homestead law.

(6) It has frequently transpired that homestead entries have been made within reclamation projects, and that ultimately it was found that the land so entered was not susceptible of reclamation, and to relieve this situation the act of March 4, 1915 (38 Stat., 1215), was enacted by which in cases of this kind the entryman is permitted to select and make a new entry of any farm unit within such irrigation project as may be finally established with credit on the new entry for the time of bona fide residence maintained on the original entry. This measure of relief was regarded as necessary to cover cases where entries were made prior to the time when it could be determined just what lands would receive water under the irrigation project.

(7) The Secretary of the Interior may well congratulate himself upon the substantial progress that has been made by the Sixtythird Congress along the lines of legislation suggested in his annual report for 1913 in providing two important measures for the development of the resources of Alaska, which hitherto have remained practically excluded from the reach of the average pioneer citizen of our States the coal-leasing act of October 20, 1914 (38 Stat., 741), and the act of March 12, 1914 (38 Stat., 305), authorizing the President of the United States to locate, construct, and operate railroads in the Territory of Alaska. The acts are each the complement of the other, and together serve a common purpose. With railroad connections opened up from the southern coast of Alaska to the interior, the first great step will have been taken toward a permanent occupation of the Territory and its ultimate development to statehood.

(8) By the remedial act of January 11, 1915 (38 Stat., 792), validating placer locations of phosphate deposits, Congress not only relieved the department of a troublesome line of litigation, as between rival claimants, but gave relief to a large number of claimants who had theretofore been confronted with the possibility of losing the results of their previous expenditure of time, labor, and money through an honest mistake, in attempting to protect their discoveries of the mineral phosphate under a placer instead of a lode location.

The peculiar geologic conditions in which beds of phosphate occur are such that much difference of opinion existed for a considerable time as to whether they were properly lode or placer deposits; and in the meantime claims were in equally good faith asserted under both lode and placer locations. The courts and the department finally held, however, that phosphate rock was only locatable as a lode, the result of which conclusion was to endanger all placer locations of phosphate, although made in the best of good faith. This act deals with the condition thus brought about and provides substantially that where placer locations of phosphate rock have heretofore been made and the law thereafter duly complied with, such locations shall be valid, and patents, whether heretofore or hereafter issued thereon, shall give title to and possession of such deposits. Exceptions are made in the case of locations made after the withdrawal of phosphate lands from location, or to locations in conflict with adverse claims. But even with these exceptions a large measure of relief has been granted to this exceedingly deserving class of claims which otherwise might have failed of confirmation.

PROPOSED LEGISLATION.

The attitude of the present administration with respect to legislation tending to the more effective development of our public lands is quite as fully disclosed in some measures that failed of passage as in those that are now found in our statute books, and is well illustrated by the bill H. R. 15799, introduced in the Sixty-third Congress by the Member from New Mexico. This bill was for the purpose of providing for the disposition of grazing lands under the homestead law, and was generally known as the stock-raising homestead. In the course of its consideration before the House committee the Secretary of the Interior submitted two reports, covering the subject very fully, and expressing a favorable view upon the general proposition, taking the ground that, inasmuch as there yet remained vast areas of the public lands to which none of the present homestead laws are well adapted, legislation which would make available for homestead purposes lands more suitable for grazing than other uses should be covered by appropriate legislation.

The bill passed the House of Representatives January 18, 1915, received a favorable report from the Senate Committee on Public Lands, but failed of passage in the Senate.

Constructive legislation in a new field was also proposed by the department with respect to the disposition of our water-power sites. This measure was practically without opposition in the House of Representatives and was adopted under bill H. R. 16673, which passed the House August 24, 1914, received a favorable report from the Senate committee, but failed of passage in the Senate. The measure, as thus defined, is based upon a recognition of the ownership of and the right of control in the States to the use of the waters in the flowing streams of the States, and where the land adjacent to such streams is necessary for the location of power sites the bill recognized the necessity of cooperation between the States, which control the water, and the United States, which owns the land, and made due provision for the safety of investments for the development of power projects, as well as the complete control by the Federal Government. The importance of legislation of this kind is a matter of comparatively recent legislation, but has now, past all doubt, reached a point from which it will henceforth persist until it finds expression in statutory enactment.

Another measure which the present administration of the Interior Department actively advocated was a general leasing bill to cover lands containing coal, oil, phosphates, and potash. The present laws regulating the disposition of our mineral lands are wholly inadequate in providing for the proper exploitation of these minerals. This is particularly true in the location and development of oil lands. The great expense and uncertainty attendant upon the actual discovery of oil calls for remedial legislation that will in some degree furnish protection during the period of development and prior to discovery.

If a lease of a considerable area, say 2,560 acres, as proposed in this bill, could be secured by coal operators, it would doubtless remove one of the most active inducements to violations of the present law, in seeking to secure unlawfully a larger area than can now be purchased by one person or association, and which in fact is required if coal mining is made fairly profitable. The general withdrawals of lands containing phosphates call for appropriate legislation under which this mineral may be mined and placed upon the market.

Like the power-site bill, this measure met with favor in the House and received its approval, but failed of passage in the Senate.

THE HOMESTEAD LAW IN OPERATION.

The actual investment made by homestead entrymen prior to final proof, as well as the extent of cultivation, has lately been made the subject of study in this office, and some exceedingly significant figures

have been obtained. The method adopted in this investigation was to compile the data from the final proofs submitted on 10 homestead entries, taken at random from each of the 95 districts of the publicland States, in comparatively recent cases.

These final proofs necessarily include all kinds and varieties of homestead entries, but, for the purpose in hand, no distinction in that particular was made, and it is found that a total of 26,297 acres were cultivated in the entire 950 claims, and the total value of the improvements placed thereon estimated at $751,151, so that the average cultivation per entry as thus disclosed is 27 acres, and the average value of improvements thereon is $790.

The substantial development of homestead claims disclosed by this investigation is thought to be a fair demonstration of the general good faith of claimants under the agricultural laws, especially when it is remembered that for the most part they are largely dependent upon the labor of their own hands, not only for the improvement of the land but for their actual subsistence.

One form of homestead entry, known as the enlarged homestead, which permits taking 320 acres of semiarid grazing lands, has also been made, and is at the present time being made, the subject of study to determine whether its operation results in the actual development of the land by the homesteader or is made use of to secure large tracts for speculative purposes.

Reports along this line have been called for through the field service and we have responses therefrom down to date. While a considerable difference of opinion is expressed in these reports as to the operation of this law, which can only be gathered by a comparative study of all the reports, it may be said that the general trend is toward a conclusion favorable to the law, largely from the fact that lands of this character lend themselves to stock-raising and grazing propositions which the farmer can not prosecute upon a lesser body of lands of this character.

The purpose of the two studies just referred to, which are now being prosecuted in this office, is to determine whether our public-land laws require any modifications by which a higher degree of development of our public lands can be secured, or whether present methods of administration are calculated to secure the best results under existing

laws.

LEGISLATION.

(1) By reference to the annual report of 1913 it will be found that legislation looking toward the consolidation and simplification of the various right-of-way acts was recommended with the outline of the essential features to be covered thereby.