Show TRE TEE two years ago congress Con gross appropriated a largo amount or of money for the tha survey or of irrig irrigable ablo lands in the west under what was known as tho survey and alo samo same bill provided that such irrigable lands should bo be withhold withheld from location until sites tor for reservoirs should bo be selected after a year and a aalfs work it was demonstrated that as major powell had laid out the work it would take about three generations to complete the surveys and that by tho the terms of the original bill there could bo be no legal location of any irrigable land and that this restriction involved more than halt half the area of the republic then an effort was made to change tho the pro gramme then congressmen took sides adhering to POWELLS pro gramme some following a movement led by senator to LIVO havo somo some practical work done quickly while others like senator opposed tho the whole scheme in the meantime individual effort was paralyzed because of the impossibility of 0 making legal locations on land the secretary of the interior was imbor tuned tor for a ruling lie ile invoked the aid of tho abo attorney general and the result was that it was determined that tile the law was so direct that it was out of the power or of tho the interior department to extend the slightest relief to tho the settler in the meantime in tho the sundry civil appropriation bill up irom from the house was an item of to continue tho the arid land surveys in tho the west tills this item was stricken out by the senate and in lieu of it a clause was inserted restoring to settlement all lands except such as his has been specifically sot set aside for sites tor for reservoirs this was returned to the house and tho the objection was at once sprung sprang that this was legislation which had no business in an all appropriation bill and there the matter hangs the friends of major advocate such an amendment to tho the law lav us as shall permit the location of little tracts hero here and there which would bo be altogether useless tile following which senator STEWART loads leads advocates tho the entire repeal of that clauso clause which reserves from entry generally tho the arid lands of tho the west and the house is now hanging on the point that the clause la ili tile the bill is legislation and cannot bo be admitted under any appropriation bill whatever in the meantime men who want to locate lands in the west are prevented by an arbitrary law aw and tho the damalo and loss to them can be conceived d when we reflect that tho the provision extends all over montana Mo utana idaho n great part of washington a great part of oregon part of california all ot of utah und and wyoming nearly all the state ol of nevada all of arizona and new mexico an area of country which Is full fully y one lair halt of tile the republic congress should not adjourn until it wipes out that legislation and it seems to us that it a three lino line bill were introduced and proper explanations tolls made to both houses it might become a law within a week the people of tile the east ot of course do not appreciate the situation at all and I 1 it t is only necessary tor for some man to spring up and say that it Is but a part ot tho system of 0 land grabbing which pre prevails valls in tile west to prejudice enough members of tho the lower if house ouse to beat the bill down wo respectfully suggest to such gentlemen that land grib grall blatz blo has been the lie rule over ever since bince the first fringe 0 of settlement sett lemont was made on oil the atlantic forty years ago trien men who lud had money in ili the last east bought soldiers warrants indian scrip anything that would cover a land entry arid and took possession of a great part of the th mississippi valley find acquired ditlea to it without paying half ot of the dollar and a quarter an ail nere acre which tho the government asked for or the land wo respectfully suggest further that it la Is la in bad taste for the sons ot of those men who did that kind of 0 work who are now flow the occupants of 0 that thai great valley to appo appoo C the poor men who tire are trying to change tho the breast of the desert into fruitful fields it if every congressman who imagines that file ho land grab bers of tho the west aro are a very do desperate sperato and avaricious sort of men bould bo be brought out in a body and shown the land that these men desiro desire to locate and could understand that the object ll Is to got a location that will justify them in golna going oil ff miles lollos to B P stream arnd turning that stream upon the land their instant conclusion would bo be that the iho man attempting such a thing must bo be a lunatic and that tho the whole business was not worth congressional consideration at the same time tho the lands are as line fine as those in tho the mississippi valley all they need to make them demonstrate that thai fact la Is to till them plant them and turn water upon them and no congressman would oppose that work it if ho he nilder understood der stood it it Is a very serious matter it was a mistake to pass the bill it was passed under a a misapprehension of the ho facts the idea being that tile tho sites for reservoirs could be established by a preliminary survey in a single season and there would bo be at most a delay of but a few mouths months to any settler in acquiring legal title to his hl aland land the work was not performed under major a pro gramme it will not bo be performed for years and years to como come tile the result Is that men aro are locate locating ag land without soy any title they aro are squatting upon the land and are liable whon when tho the lands become open to entry to loso lose tile tho benefits of what they are doing it is a matter next in importance to the silver bill itself and it is the duty of congress to act upon it lu in a a thorough maraca and without one moments delay |