PATENTS TO DESERT-LAND ENTRIES ON RECLAMATION PROJECTS, ETC. AUGUST 23, 1912.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. SMITH of Texas, from the Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 26338.] The Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands, to which was referred the bill (H. R. 26338) providing for patents to desert-land entries on reclamation projects and for other purposes, having had the same under consideration, reports the bill back with an amendment and recommends that as amended the bill do pass. Amend page 2, line 5, by inserting the word "ninth" after the word "August." On July 29, 1912, the House passed, with certain amendments, an act providing for patents on reclamation projects and for other purposes, which had prior to that time been passed by the Senate. The Senate concurred in the House amendments and the measure was approved by the President on August 9, 1912. It was generally believed at the time the bill passed that desert-land entrymen who might have been included within reclamation projects would receive patents the same as homestead entrymen, and it was so intended. However, when the matter was called to the attention of the Interior Department, it was held that the law was not comprehensive enough to include desert-land entrymen, though the department believes that it is perhaps even more cogent that patents should issue to desert-land entrymen than to homesteaders. The proposed bill seeks to extend the provisions of the act to desertland entrymen. There is herewith included a letter from the honorable First Assistant Secretary of the Interior, date August 16, 1912, addressed to Hon. Burton L. French, House of Representatives, setting forth the views of the Interior Department upon the act of August 9, 1912. Also, there is included herewith a letter from the honorable Secretary of the Interior, addressed inadvertently to the chairman of the Committee on Public Lands instead of to the chairman of the Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands, bearing upon the pending bill and recommending the passage of legislation to attain the same end but with certain modifications of language. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Hon. BURTON L. FRENCH, House of Representatives. MY DEAR MR. FRENCH: In reply to your letter of August 7, 1912, asking whether the act of Congress approved August 9, 1912 (Public, No. 256), "providing for patents on reclamation entries, and for other purposes," is applicable to unpatented desertland entries within such projects. The act relates to two classes of persons who have applied for water rights under Government reclamation projects: First, those who have made homestead entries of public lands subject to the reclamation act, including entrymen on ceded Indian lands, and, second, "all purchasers of water-right certificates on reclamation projects.” To the first-class patent, expressly reserving to the United States a prior lien upon the lands superior to all other claims or demands for the payment of all sums due or to become due to the United States, is authorized to be issued upon compliance with the law as to residence, reclamation, and cultivation. Purchasers of water-right certificates are entitled to final water-right certificates upon proof of cultivation and reclamation of the land. Desert-land entries within reclamation projects occupy, under the law, a different status from either class of lands herein before described. The entries necessarily were made prior to the inclusion of the lands within the reclamation project, and under the law could include a maximum area of 320 acres. Congress on June 27, 1906 (34 Stat., 520) enacted special legislation with respect to such entries, providing that the entryman could complete same and obtain patent for the entire area entered if he possessed water rights sufficient therefor, or if he elected to come into the Government project and secure water therefrom he should be required to relinquish all lands in his entry in excess of 160 acres, and thereupon, as to the remaining area, upon compliance with the terms of payment prescribed in the reclamation act, he would be entitled to make final proof and obtain patent. These provisions of the reclamation act, specifically made a part of said act of June 27, 1906, are that no patent shall issue or final water-right certificate be given until payment to the Government of all charges apportioned against said entry. The act of August 9, 1912, supra, does not specifically or by implication repeal or operate to repeal the act of June 27, 1906, which, in the opinion of this department, remains in full force and effect as to desert-land entries within reclamation projects. Consequently, in the opinion of the department, patent can not issue upon such desert-land entries until full compliance has been had with the terms of the reclamation act, including payment of all building charges apportioned thereagainst. Very respectfully, Hon. JOE T. ROBINSON, SAMUEL ADAMS, First Assistant Secretary. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTErior, Chairman Committee of the Public Lands, House of Representatives. SIR: Representative Burton L. French has, in view of the nearness of the close of the present session of Congress, requested the department to submit to you report upon H. R. 26338, introduced by him August 19, 1912, without waiting formal call therefor from your committee. The bill proposes to authorize issuance of patents upon desertland entries in reclamation projects upon the same terms and conditions as prescribed by the act of August 9, 1912 (Public No. 256), relating to homestead entries and the owners of private lands within reclamation projects. The department believes that such legislation should be enacted, the reasons therefor being perhaps more cogent in the case of desert-land entries than in the case of homestead entries. It is suggested, however, that in the interest of clearness and to insure that no entryman shal receive a patent for more than 160 acres of land, that the bill be amended to read as follows: "That where a desert-land entry is included within the exterior limits of a Govern ment reclamation project and the desert-land claimant, in compliance with the act of June twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred and six, relinquishes to the United States lands covered by the entry in excess of one hundred and sixty acres and subscribes for a water right from the project, he may, at any time after having complied with the provisions of the law applicable to such lands and upon proof of cultivation and reclamation of the land to the extent required by the reclamation act for homestead entrymen, submit proof of such compliance, which proof, if found regular and satisfactory, shall entitle him to a patent and a final water-right certificate under the same terms and conditions as prescribed for homestead entrymen under the act entitled 'An act providing for patents on reclamation entries, and for other purposes,' approved August ninth, nineteen hundred and twelve." Very respectfully, BRIDGE ACROSS SNAKE RIVER IN JACKSON HOLE, WYO. AUGUST 23, 1912.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. SMITH of Texas, from the Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany S. 3947.] The Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands having had under consideration Senate bill 3947, to provide for a bridge across Snake River in Jackson Hole, Wyo., report the same back with the following recommendation: Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the following: That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to use such portion of the reclamation fund, not to exceed eighteen thousand dollars, and in no event more than one-half the sum that may be necessary for the construction of a bridge across Snake River, at a point in township forty-one or forty-two north, range one hundred and sixteen or one hundred and seventeen west, Wyoming, to be determined by the Reclamation Service, with the view of best serving the people of Jackson Hole and adjacent territory in Wyoming: Provided, That no part of the funds herein authorized to be used, except such as may be necessary for the making of examinations and estimates, shall be expended until the Secretary of the Interior shall have obtained, from the proper local authorities, satisfactory guaranties of the payment, by the said local authorities, of one-half of the cost of said bridge; and that the said local authorities assume full responsibility for and will at all times maintain and repair the said bridge and approaches thereto. Strike out the preamble. As thus amended it is recommended that the bill do pass. The bill as it is recommended to be amended is identical with H. R. 21171, a bill authorizing the use of the reclamation fund in construction of a bridge across Snake River, in Wyoming; and there is appended hereto and made a part of this report the report made on the said bill by Mr. Taylor of Colorado. The building of the bridge provided for in this bill is rendered necessary by the construction, by the Reclamation Service under the reclamation law, of a dam at the outlet of Jackson Lake, near the Yellowstone National Park, in northwestern Wyoming; and the change in the character of the flow of Snake River, through which the empounded waters are discharged. HR-62-2-vol 5-52 |