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Show Land Rights for i State of Utah SALT LAKE. Oct. 20. -R E. Davis, chairman of the state board of land commissioners, leaves today for Washington, Wash-ington, where he will take up with the secretary of ihe interior and the representatives rep-resentatives in congress from Utah the matter of the state's rights to Ihe school lands ceded by the federal government gov-ernment when statehood was granti d Mr. Davis said: "The people of Utah little realibe that this state has a -mailer income for th' financing of the state schools than most of the west-,ern west-,ern slates and any of the eastern states This condition has been brought about bv circumstances, and 1 no one individual can be called responsible. re-sponsible. "In the first place. Utah, as a terri-; terri-; tory. was vastly more thickly populated popu-lated than other western states When it was admitted as a state to the union, All ot the good lands through the valleys val-leys were taken up, and in surveying thesfi lands tho federal government, as is customary, allowed the settlers to have a first right to the lands, although in many instances these lands were .in the nert ions In each township which . were given to the state as school lands, j Lieu Lands Poor. "All the salt land In the state was 'taken back by the government, and the school land which came under thi3 heading was given back and lieu lands taken In some cases these lieu land-j land-j were not as good The mineral lands i were next taken back, and once again! : we were forced to choose lieu lands Much of thp lands h-f: at that tinie .were either on th tops rf the mouti- ' I fains or on the great salt deesrt. The national forest reserve also took away much of the good lands of the sta-e, j i until now the federal government has 75 per cent of the lands of the state! and the stale has 25 per cent. Th state legislature, in the early I history of Utah, decreed that state i lands should sell at $ 1 .25 an acre. In I Montana the state lands sell at not less 'than $10 an acre. This cut down the school revenue. 1 am not taking the position of criticising the legislature for making such a ruling, for in most cases the land "?hich the state had left to sell was not worth more than ?1 25 1 an acre. To Establish Rights. "I cannot hope to change these con- ditions now, but I am going to make i an effort to establish just what the j state rights are to mineral lands. Utah should be allowed the privilege of de termining where these mineral lands are located now and given the opportunity oppor-tunity to choose lieu lands at once bo-1 fore any more lands are taken away " At the recent special session of the legislature, a memorial to congress was ratified, in which that body was requested to take action In determining determin-ing what mineral lands belonged to the state and what belonged to tnei federal government before all the good lands in the state were gone Mr.! Davis will urge that the Utah mem-. hers ol" congress use then mtluence in - having this memorial properly present- 1 ed to congre -s I iri i oo I hnn |
