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59TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 2d Session.

ENLARGEMENT OF MILITARY RESERVATIONS.

FEBRUARY 4, 1907.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. DIXON, of Montana, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 24366.]

The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill H. R. 24366) authorizing the enlargement of military reservations by the exchange of lands, having had the same under consideration respectfully submit the following report and recommend that said bill do pass with the following amendments:

In line 10, after the word exchange," strike out the words "an equal area of."

In line 12, after the word "entry," insert the words "within the same State or Territory."

After the word " for," in line 13, add the following proviso:

Provided, That not more than twenty thousand acres of public lands shall be exchanged in the aggregate under this act: And provided further, That each particular exchange shall be certified and described at the time the exchange is made.

The present method of acquiring private lands for the enlargement of military reservations is found by the War Department to be very expensive and unsatisfactory. The present law provides that it be done by condemnation proceedings, which is often long and tedious as well as expensive.

The method provided for in this bill would in some instances result in a direct trade between the private owner of land that may be needed for military purposes and the Government for public lands of equal value and perhaps in some cases of equal area.

Owners of private lands adjacent to a military reservation would in some instances prefer to exchange their holdings for other lands beyond the reach of modern rifles that are used in target practice.

It is this target practice and military maneuvering that renders it necessary in these modern days to enlarge some of the military

reservations, while others that do not require enlargement do require a change of form; that is, they are required to be diminished in one way and enlarged in another.

The Secretary of War appeared before the committee and stated that such adjustments could, in his opinion, be made with greater economy to the Government if authority were given to exchange public lands for private lands.

Your committee have therefore carefully prepared the bill in such manner as to prevent the issuance of scrip, and have provided for specific exchanges and limited the aggregate area to 20,000 acres that may be exchanged under the act.

O

PROTECTION OF PUBLIC LANDS ON THE LOWER COLORADO RIVER.

FEBRUARY 4, 1907.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. SMITH, of California, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany S. 7776.]

The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill (S. 7776) to protect the Colorado River, having had the same under consideration, respectfully submit the following report:

That with the following amendments the bill pass:

Amend the title so as to read: "An act to protect the public lands on the lower Colorado River, and for other purposes.

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On page 1, line 3, strike out "two" and insert" one."

On page 1, line 10, strike out "and in connec-," and on page 2 strike out all of lines 1, 2, 3, and 4.

After section 3 add:

SEC. 4. The sum of one million dollars herein appropriated shall be treated as a loan to the reclamation fund, and shall be repaid out of said fund in five equal annual installments.

This bill aims to carry into effect the suggestions made by the President in his message of January 12, 1907 (S. Doc. 212). The importance of controlling the Colorado River from the international line, near Yuma, southward can hardly be overestimated. Unless this be done the entire irrigation system supplying water to the Imperial Valley, in California, will be discharged, ruining the entire agricultural interests of 8,000 to 10,000 people. It is thought also that the sluicing out of the river channel would continue upstream till the great Laguna reclamation dam would be destroyed, thus terminating the work now under way for the irrigation of a large amount of rich bottom land in Arizona. Should the sluicing out continue still farther upstream it will produce conditions which will prevent the irrigation of approximately 400,000 acres of Government land still farther up the river. Altogether the future irrigation of

more than 700,000 acres of rich land, chiefly owned by the Government, depends upon the preservation of the Colorado River in its former condition.

At the urgent solicitation of the President the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, whose roadbed was threatened by the overflow. began the work of closing the break in the levee and strengthening the same about December 20, 1906, and at this date is prosecuting the work with vigor. The fair division of the cost of this work is by the bill left to the President.

The following extract from the message referred to presents the salient features of the same:

The Imperial Valley, so called, in San Diego County, Cal., includes a large tract of country below sea level. Southeast of the valley and considerably above its level is the Colorado River, which flows on a broad, slightly elevated plain upon which the river pursues a tortuous course, finally entering the Gulf of California. The lands in the Imperial Valley are 200 feet or more below the level of the Colorado River. Down as far as the international border they are protected from inundation by low-lying hills. South of the boundary, in the Republic of Mexico, the hills cease abruptly and only the broad, low mud banks of the river protect the valley from being converted into an inland sea or lake. In order to get any water to this vast tract of fertile but desert land or, on the other hand, to protect it from too much water, works of supply or protection must be built in Mexico, even though they may tap the river in the United States. The United States can neither aid nor protect the interests of its citizens without going upon foreign soil.

The California Development Company, a corporation, undertook the work of taking the water from the Colorado River for the purpose of irrigating the lands in the Imperial Valley. The first heading of the canal of the California Development Company was in the United States immediately north of the Mexican border. This not giving sufficient flow of water, a cut in the river bank was made 4 miles farther south, in Mexican territory. This cut on Mexican soil was made in the fall of 1904. It was gradually eroded by the passage of the water, and in the spring of 1905 the floods of the Colorado River entering the artificial cut rapidly widened and deepened it until the entire flow of the river was turned westwardly down the relatively steep slope into the Imperial Valley, and thence into what is known as the "Salton Sink" or "Salton Sea." This break was closed on November 4, 1906, but a month later a sudden rise in the river undermined the levees immediately south of the former break, and the water again resumed its course into the Salton Sea. Effort is now being made to close the break a second time.

It is estimated that there are from 6,000 to 10,000 people in the Imperial Valley, and if the break in the river is not closed before the coming spring flood of 1907 it is probable that a large part of the property values in the val ley will be wiped out, including farms and towns, and ultimately the channel will be deepened in the main stream up to and beyond the town of Yuma, destroying the homes and farms in that vicinity and the Government works at Laguna dam, where the Government has already expended more than $1,000,000 and there are outstanding liabilities under contract amounting to nearly a million more. Private agencies are now at work to close the break through which the Colorado River is flowing into the Salton Sea, and are repairing and building levees to keep the river within its banks when it rises by reason of the spring floods.

RELIEF OF HOMESTEAD AND OTHER ENTRYMEN PAYING EXCESS LEGAL FEES, ETC.

FEBRUARY 5, 1907.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. MARTIN, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 22588.]

The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 22588) for the relief of homstead and other entrymen who have been required to pay more than the legal fees, commissions, excesses, and purchase money, having had the same under consideration, respectfully submit the following report:

The committee recommends that the bill be amended in the last line thereof by striking out the words "legal representatives" and inserting the word "assigns," and that the bill as so amended shall pass.

In the administration of our public-land laws it is unavoidable that some mistakes should be made by the officers of the Government, and that in many instances money should be paid into the Treasury of the United States for the public lands in excess of the legal amount due therefor. It has always been the policy of the Government to return to the persons entitled thereto such amounts as have been paid into the Federal Treasury by mistake. However, when money is once paid into the Treasury it can be disbursed only under specific Congressional authority. For this purpose an act was passed January 12, 1825 (Rev. Stat., secs. 2362-2363), which vided for the refundment of purchase money where the Government could not convey title to the land entered, and by the act of June 16, 1880 (21 Stat. L., 287), this character of relief was extended to include the return of fees and commissions on homestead entries that could not be confirmed and of the illegal excess where double minimum price had been paid for lands afterwards found not to be within any railroad land grant.

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The effect of these laws is to exclude from their beneficial operation all cases not specifically included therein. As a result there is a large class of cases where by mistake the local land officers have collected

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