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Show HEKffl ON TIRES SOUGHT! I Memorial Seeking" Remedy ' Will Be Introduced in Legislature Today. Elimination of Contests Over Mineral Tracts Is Object Desired. In an effort to obtain legislation In eongr.'Ks which will determine without contest in each case the title to school lands coming under sections 2. 16, 32 and 3G, granted by the federal Government to the state, which are found to be mineral laiulu, a joint memorial will be Introduced today by tile state land commissioners beforo the state legislature. The memorial points out that much of the areas granted as school lands has been sold by the stale, with the understanding- that the state had full title to tbo lands, regardless of whether or not such lands contain mineral, and that the individuals who -purchased the tracts havo in a number of cases found that they must revert back to the federal government. gov-ernment. This condition follows tbo United Stales supreme court decision In the Sweet case, which held that all lands known to be mineral lands prior to the taking effect of the land grant made by the federal government to the stale musl revert back to the federal government. Decisions Difficult. The land commissioners often are In a quandary to determine just what lands were known to bo mineral lands before the grant, and they are consequently unable un-able to determine to what lands the state can give a title. A portion of the memorial Is: " hereas, Lands which are now found to contain minerals or thought to be mineral Jands upon Investigation by the department of interior, and which were included in the sections conveyed by the United States to the state of Utah and sold by the state of Utah to purchasers tor the purposes designated in the enabling en-abling act, are being disposed of, or attempted at-tempted to be disposed of, by the department depart-ment of the interior as property of the United States: and "Whereas. In each case where said attempted at-tempted disposition is made by the United States a contest between the state and the United Stales, or between a purchaser pur-chaser of the United States and the state or between a purchaser of the state and t.ie United States, is entailed; and Confusion Engendered. "Whereas, There have been a great many of such conlcsts and. under the present state of affairs, a likelihood of many more contests of like nature will take place, leading to the unsettlement of titles and supposed rights, and will tend to confusion; and '"Whereas. The state of Utah Is unable to determine in many cases just exactly what land it owns, and, therefore, what it may soil, to the great detriment of the common school funds and the purposes tor which said lands were granted; and V Whereas, It is, deemed that said slate ot al fairs should be remedied by proper legislation of congress; '.Vow, therefore, the governor and the legislature of the state of Utaii respectfully respect-fully petition that necessary legislation be enacted by the congress of the United States, whereby it may be determined what sections granted by the enabling act to the state of Utah for the purposes therein mentioned belong to the state of Utah, and thai some certain and workable work-able method be instituted for determining, determin-ing, without contest in each particular case what lands sold by the state to purchasers really belong to the said purchasers pur-chasers or belong to the United States " |