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Show BIG LAND HOLDINGS TARGET FOR ACTION! IN CALIFORNIA ; Bill Offered by Legislator, Calls Attention to Num- ber of Baronial Estates K A r IUMKNT". Cal,. rVb, 4. If th ; iiiii in-n'riifil ! fi-nutr 'Uude mr- 1 kitt. to limit laml hoMine. becomes ai law. California is K"in(5 to have the j biKKeat real estate shakeup In its his- . lory. ! legislators consiiHr the bill the most radical of the hundreds presented. They call be & bolshevik now." says Purkitt. I The measure would limit holdings . of tillable lands to 1000 acres and nf BraxinB lands to 2000 acres. One tif , the objects of the bill is to break up large land holdings. ' REPORT ON HOLDINGS. 1 Some inklinff of the shakup th ' measure would ranse can b- Rained by a story of the report on large land I holdings prepared by the commis- j si on of immigration and housing in I Thp report covers the counties of hanta Barbara, entura, Los An- i (teles. Orange, San DteRo. Kiverside, ! ban Bernardino and Imperial. j The report does not discuss larce land holdines in Kern and other conn- ties. In these ight countk-s the Southern ; Pacific holds .518.775 acres f lund, j according to the report. Kxcluding I this railroad property. 274 holdings in excess of 2000 acres iot.t 2. 29a. 140. The commii'sion's rp.rt shows that 65.7 per cent of the totul urea of Srtnta ) Barbara county is held in pjircels of 1 more than moo acres. O.rrcspnml.nir j percentage figures for other counties i jare: Ventura. -J0.4; Orange. Ji.l.ft; San I ,Iiego. 43.1; Hivcr.d and San j Bernardino, 48.3. VAST HOLDINGS. "It may thus fee said that title to ; one-half of the non railroad and non- ' public rural land of the eight counties Is vested in not more than 250 land , holders." concludes the commission. j Among the estate in these eight counties which Purkitt's bill Would 1 split up. the commission lists the fol- lowing: I Jerome O'Neil. Inc. .lames Klood t. 1 183.339 acres; James Irvine, 101.000; j Kmptre l.and and Cattle company, S, ' 07f; whal lattnd and Cattle com- , pany. 67,180; William ti. Henshuw. 60.309. The commission lists thirty-two rs- ' tales of more than 15,000 acres in the i eight counties. SHINING EXAMPLE. The commission sees u menace to the state in these large land holdings. . I-iscusing the estate of the H:ndge family, comprising 16.294 acres in Los1 Angeles county, the commission says: Another extensive holding represents an American succession to a Spanish-Mexican ownership and the ( establishment of a manorial estate. 1 (This instance is, however, extreme; it ' is the instance of a little principality, ' j def'ant if law and of public sentiment, (determined to live Its independent life ! regardless of the demands and the in- ' terests f .i society with which it in perpetual discord, lis conflict with the outside world : an ever recurring ! -sue in the courts. It holds to its land. 1 ..f whi.-h it makes small use. merely i through an obstinate pride of posses- : itm." i ; Much of the Southern Pacific land : is desert, according to the report, and large .sections of . the other extensive holdings are suttaMo only fir stock. Tillable land, however, is often poorly; farmed by the large holder, the prob-J ers found. |