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Show It PUBLIC HIS, I PUBLIC ROADS I AUTO ALLIANCE I, j WASHINGTON", D. C. Jan. 31 In connection with Iho effort thai the f "Western States nre now making ;to il secure from the Congress the cession i of public lands to the Stales wherein they are situated, some forceful tacts 'il au.i figures have been supplied by the, 1 governors who appeared before Senate, ) and House committees which have to ' do with public land questions. Governor Gov-ernor 0. A. Larrazolo, of New Mexico. I 1 upon request of officials of the Ameri- j ( in Automobile Association, which in j iu annual meeting approved the King bill, thus concisely summarizes the j nut lor and connects it up with roads j building: "I doubt if the people of the country know that in the States of Montana, 1 Wvoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arl- 1 r.oin. I'tnh, Idaho, Washington, Ore- '1 :on, Nevada, and California, the Uni-i :' cd States Government owns 370,o57,- ' 772 acres of land, of which 150.0Su.157j !i acres are reserved lands, and 220, 274,- M 175 acres are unreserved and unappro- ;, printed public lands; this in addition r to .iS.SOO.l'DL) acres oof Indian lands ! "in other words, in each of the ?bovn named eleven states the Government h.-s retained unto itself the ownership I of rrom 5 per cent (which Is the low- 1 est) in the State of Washington to I SGV- per cent in the Statu of Novada. These lands do not pay any taxes, and i I with the exception of a small percent , age derived from the leasing of these lands, they do not in any way contri- 1 buie to the development of iho West. Yet, the West, wind is a countiy of ' very great distances and of large elv nonulntcd and i' Us wealth is comparatively small. In spite of those disadvantagcs( the West; must keep and does keep a system of, public education and other higher in-1 dilutions or learning-that will compare favorably with those of our mor1 for- tunate and wealthy States of the other i tactions or the country. I """For instance, speaking for New j -Mexico, and with -very few- exceptions all of the Western States are in prac.ti- cally the sarao condition), out of aj .t 'total assessed valuation amounting to i something less than four "hundred mil- lions of dollars, there was raised by taxation for the year 1918 the sum of $&.u90.216. of which .total SJ.00fj.070 were spent for educational purposes. "In New Mexico, there are 43.091 miles of road actually in operation and use, and during the years 1917, 191S, and 1919, We spent $2,936,597. raised by taxation, in addition to -5249.976 derived de-rived from Federal aid in the conslruc- tion of roads in that state. The road I building program for the years 1920 and I 1921 in my state involve the expendl-! expendl-! ture of ?5479,92o, which must be con- I tributed by the Federal and State gov 'i ornmentK respectively-on a fifty-fifty basis; -in addition to this the state alone will spend in Ihc noxt two jears I; the sum of $2,05S,609 in the mainten-1 mainten-1 ance and upkeep of those roads. I "It will thus appear that these West M' crh slates have great works of im-5 im-5 ; provemcnt and development to per, J ( rdrm, for the benofit, not only of those S j spates, but for the benefit and the en-' en-' joyment of the whole nation, development develop-ment which involves tho expenciiture ' jOT millions and millions of dollars, all 1 ojD which nfust be raised by direct tax ation from tho people. "If these lands were ceded to the tatesj their sources of revenue would thereby be largely increased, the burden bur-den of taxation upon its inhabitants 1 ; would be materially diminished, and 1 the work of development would be " advanced very materially. The West I si, offers to the people of the whole coun ; 3ry a natural scenery, the beauty ol ' j which certainly is not surpassed any I ! where in the world, and the main thing lot that is needed to put all this within i'each or the tourist is good roads, 1 , This tourist often becomes a resident j r br an Investor Jn a state which ap IBs peaiE 10 nun ior one reason or anotner Ij : "One of the objections raised to the Tjcding of these lands is to the effect i J.hat the public domain belongs to the tj -nation and that it should be kept by jjj the Federal goovernment as a rev-Ill rev-Ill unite producing fund for the benefit of Jhe whole country. This is a rather ill narrow-minded argument, because, in- Tlcen,. if the thing is looked at in its! IU proper light, it Js to the interest of the 11 vyhole country that Its natural re-I re-I Soourco be fully and thoroughly devel-j devel-j oped, regardless of that part of the re-W re-W public whero they may lie, because J ' JUiis nation as a whole is benefited by ll Whatever benefits any portion of it, j j Hind is likewise injured by anything j he retards the growth and develop-a develop-a , nieQl of any Part of the same. lj "Granting that tho argument is llj sound. I would be willing to concede S that there is merit in It if it were true 3 j tjint the public domain is a source of IJ revenue In the hnndu of the Federal a 1 government; but it is a fact that can-It! can-It! 1 not be contradicted that il is a liability and not an asset in the hands of the government. In, ISS-i tho Congress ap pointed a committee to investigate Ihe .management of the public domain, and after a thorough investigation that! committee reported that from the in- coption of tho creation of the public domain to the year 1SS3, covering a period of over 100 years, there had been expended by the government In its management the sum of ?!ioi,9Sl,-160.32, ?!ioi,9Sl,-160.32, and during the same period of time there had been received from that source the sum of $225,552,G76,.23. leaving a deficit for that period of $126,12S,-i8i.S9. "It Is a fact that there has not been one single year from the beginning 10 date, covering a period of over 140 years, when the handling of the public ddniain by the government has not ! resulted in a deficit of from one mil-1 mil-1 lion and a quarter to two and one-half one-half million every year, which deficit j lias been covered by appropriations by .Congress- In my state, we came in possession of 12.000,000 acres of land; when we were admitted to-statehood, and we still own over 9.COO.O0O acres; J we have managed these public lands at: a total expense of z per cent in 191S,' ,io 31-2 per cent in 1919, of the total revenues derived from them, and wo have been able to pay into our state 'treasury considerably over $1,000,000 'a year from that source. Comparing tho two managements, the rj3Ults Ispa.ik for themselves. "Considerably more could bo said on i this subject, but I feel that I have suf-ficiently suf-ficiently explained this matter to show the justice of our plea and the sure advantage ad-vantage that will result to the whole i country by granting these lands to the stales where they are situated. All, that wc want is for the people of the country to be informed on this matter ami wc feel confident that their own 'sense of justice will impel them to 'join with us in this our just request " oo |