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Show URGES NEEDS OF PUBLIC DOMAIN Immediate Legislation Is Imperative, Im-perative, Says the President. Presi-dent. ASKS NEW LAWS FOR ALASKA Rule Governing Acquisition of Arid or Semi-Arid Lands Should Be Modified Commission on Cost of Living. Washington, Feb. 2. A special message mes-sage on the work of the interior department de-partment and other matters was read to Congress today. To the Senate and House of Representatives: Repre-sentatives: There is no branch of the Federal jurisdiction which calls more imperatively impera-tively for immediate legislation than that which concerns the public domain, do-main, and especially the part of that domain which is in Alaska. The progress under the reclamation act has made clear the defects of its limitations, which should be remedied. The rules governing the acquisition of homesteads, of land that is not arid or semi-arid, are not well adapted to the perfecting of title to land made arable by government reclamation work. I concur with the Secretary of the Interior in his recommendation that, after entry Is made upon land being reclaimed, actual occupation as a homestead of the same be not required re-quired until two years after entry, but that cultivation of the same shall be required, and that the present provision pro-vision under which the land is to be paid for in ten annual installments shall be so modified as to allow a patent pat-ent issue for the land at the end of five years' cultivation and three years' occupation, with a reservation of a government lien for the amount of the unpaid purchase money. This leniency to the reclamation homesteader home-steader will relieve him from occupation occupa-tion at a time when the condition of the land makes it most burdensome and difficult, and at the end of fivo years will furnish him with a title upon which he can borrow money and continue the improvement of his holding. hold-ing. I also concur in the recommendation recommenda-tion of the Secretary of the Interior that all of our public domain should be classified and that each class should be disposed of or administered in the manner most appropriate to that particular class. Leasing of Government Lands. The chief change, however, which ought to be made, and which I have already recommended in previous messages and communications to congress, con-gress, is that by which government coal land and phosphate and Pther mineral lands containing nwr'jietal-liferous nwr'jietal-liferous minerals, shall be leased by the government, with restrictions as to size and time, resembling those which now obtain throughout the country between the owners In fee and the lessees who work the mines, and Jn leases like those which have been most successful in Australia, New Zealand, and Nova Scotia. The showing made by investigations Into the successful working of the leasing iystem leaves no doubt as to Its wisdom wis-dom and practical utility. Requirements Require-ments as to the working of the mine during the term may be so framed as to prevent any holding of large mining properties merely for speculation, specula-tion, while the royalties may be made sufficiently low, not unduly to Increase In-crease the cost of the coal mined, and at the same time sufficient to furnish a. reasonable Income for the use of the public in the community where the mining goes on. In Alaska, there Is no reason why a substantial income should not thus be raised for such public works as may be deemed necessary or useful. ' Would Build Trunk Line Railroad. I am not in favor of government ownership where the same certainty and efficiency of service can be had by private enterprise, but I think the J conditions presented in Alaska are of I such a character as to warrant the government, for the purpose of encouraging en-couraging the development of that I vast and remarkable territory, to : build and own a trunk line railroad, : which it can lense on terms which ! may be varied and changed tn mwt , the growing prosperity and develop-' develop-' ment of ihe territory. 1 I have already recommended to Congress the establishment of a form of commission government for Alaska. Alas-ka. The territory is too extended, its needs are too varied, and its distance trom Washington too remote to enable en-able Congress to keep up with its i necessities in the matter of legisla- tion of a local character. The governor of Alaska in his re- port points out certain laws that : Dught to be adopted, and emphasizes |