OCR Text |
Show Two Good Bills Among the public land measures that Senator Smoot, Cnairman of the Committee Com-mittee on Public Lands, now has before Congress are two measures that are of especial interest to the people ,f Utah. One of then provides for agricultural entries on oil lands, and the other extends ex-tends the so-called squatter's right to settlers on lands that have been designated desig-nated by the Secretary of the Interior as coming under toe provisions of the Smoot Enlarged Home-stead Act. Senator Sena-tor Smoot has secured the passage of both of these bills through the Senate and they are now under consideraton by the Committee on Public Lands of the House of Representatives. The first bill will, if it becomes law, open up to settlement about 3,8000.000 acres of the puolic doma u that is now withdrawn from entry aa oil lands. The Smoot bill proposes to permit settlers set-tlers to enter upon these lands and cultivate cul-tivate them, eventually acquiring this surface owner-ship, at the same time reserving to the government the oil iat is contained in them. In southern south-ern Utah there are vast tracts of public pub-lic lands that have been withdrawn from entry because of tneir classiiica-tion classiiica-tion by the Geological Survey as oi' lands or being valuable for oil. As the law now stands theie lands eannoc be developed but must await the final disposition dis-position the government sees fit to make of them. If Senator Smoot's bill becomes law, these lands can be developed de-veloped and transformed into homes for the people. The seco id bill, wnich exetenJd the so-called squattt-r right to the Smoot Enlarged Homstead Act, is neccessary to complete the object of the Smoot Act, which is the development of the arid lands of the West. In Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Colorado, and Wyoming there are large areas of unsurveyed land which come under the provisions of the Smoot Act. Many persons have initiate I claims upon these lands and have cultivated and made improvements upon their claims' Mere justice would dumand that these people should be givntt a preference right of entry when the land3 are surveyed sur-veyed and thrown open to actual entry. This is what Senator Smoot's bill proposes pro-poses Lo do. Both of the bills here mentioned hve been approved by the Interior Department Depart-ment and Senator Smoot anticipates I that they will be en icted into law. |