PART THREE GOVERNMENTAL FUNCTIONS DIVISION IX PUBLIC RESOURCES AND PUBLIC WORK PUBLIC LANDS BY WILLIAM SPRY COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE It is likely that only an occasional ders, comprising a boundless field for person could be found who would ad-recreation and educational research. mit ignorance of the fact that the Other thousands of acres have been expense of running the affairs of this devoted to reserves for the protection big nation is met by funds derived of birds and game. from taxation, direct or indirect, as everybody either pays taxes or hears others complain about having to pay them. Few recognize that the greatest national asset is the public domain. In addition to the vast area that has been dedicated to public use and the conservation of natural resources, hundreds of millions of acres have been disposed of at cash sale, the earliest method of disposition, under: General Disposition. The public the preemption law, which was the lands, in a restricted sense, are those first provision to encourage actual only which are subject to disposal un-settlement on the public lands; the der the various acts of Congress, to homestead laws which followed and which reference will be made; but in later superseded the preemption acts; order to realize the part they have the timber and stone law for the displayed in the development of this posal of lands chiefly valuable for country, one must know that the timber or stone; the desert land law early frontier was pushed forward for the reclamation of arid lands by till it was practically obliterated by individuals; the mining laws; grants those of pioneering instinct who to encourage the building of railroads sought free homes on the public do- and wagon roads. To the States went main or to wrest wealth from its nat- the swamp lands within their boundaural resources. They established the ries and other lands for the support settlements that became towns and of schools and various public purtowns that developed into cities. Out poses. of the public lands have been created The public domain of to-day is made and reserved the great national for-up of over 180,000,000 acres in the ests, with an aggregate area of more United States, and more than 300,than 180,000,000 acres, the wonderful| 000,000 acres in Alaska. The greater national parks covering over 11,000 part of the vacant lands in the United square miles, and more than 2,500 States is in the States west of the square miles embraced in national Mississippi River, though small areas monuments perpetuating natural won-subject to disposition are still to be found in the southern States of Flor- possible the results attained. During ida, Alabama, Mississippi and Lou- the 22 years of operations under the isiana. The most important laws un-reclamation act, the General Land Ofder which these lands may be ac- fice has provided more than $128,000,quired are: the homestead acts, re- 000 for the work; during the 5 years quiring residence and cultivation; since the passage of the mineral leasthe desert land law, requiring irriga- ing act, over $20,000,000 have been tion; and the mining laws. added to the reclamation fund from the proceeds of oil and gas leases under that law. Incidentally the States in which these oil and gas lands are located have been enriched to the extent of about $15,000,000 during the same period. Public Land Service. This vast empire is under the direct control of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, at Washington, subject to the supervisory authority of the Secretary of the Interior. The machinery for its protection and dispo- Homestead Lands. Of all the pubsition is made up of the executive lic land laws, the one of greatest inoffice in the Interior Department, terest, which brings the government about fifty district offices in the sev-into intimate relation with the claimeral public land States where entries ant, is the homestead law. Under the are actually made; a cadastral engineering service, which surveyed about 6,000,000 acres during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1924. Also a field inspection force with varied duties having in view the prevention of fraud in the acquisition of title to the public lands, protection of the public timber against trespass and fire, and a general enforcement of the laws and regulations governing the acquirement of land titles from the government. In the early days the public lands were disposed of at cash sale to raise funds for the running expenses of government. From May 20, 1785, to June 30, 1924, receipts from the sale of public lands and Indian lands aggregated more than $555,000,000. In addition to liberal land grants, millions of dollars have been paid the States for educational purposes and public improvements. The important operations of the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation in reclaiming arid lands by the concentration and distribution of water for irrigation are well known to the public; but how many people are aware of the fact that the funds for this work are provided by the General Land Office through its administration of the public land laws? Congress has been called upon to appropriate practically nothing from the general funds of the government since the enactment of the reclamation law in 1902, as that statute imposed the financial burden upon the land department and it has made other public land laws personal contact with the land is more or less incidental, but the seeker of a free home must actually reside upon the land for at least seven months each year for a period of three years and cultivate a prescribed portion. It is no undertaking for a weakling, as the lands still available for homesteading are not only mainly remote from railroads and towns, but are valuable for stock-raising purposes rather than cultivation of the ordinary agricultural crops. The Commissioner of the General Land Office is authorized to reduce the cultivation requirements upon proper grounds, and the homesteader is permitted to be absent from the claim for a period of five months each year in order to enable him to earn money for living expenses and improvements. Credit for military service against the term of residence required is given soldiers and sailors of the Civil War, the Spanish War, the Mexican Border Operations, and the World War; and veterans of the last war have a preference right of entry in connection with lands made available to entry by survey or restoration from reservation or withdrawal. A surprising interest in the opportunities afforded by the homestead laws was manifested by returning soldiers of the World War, and many of them have acquired farm homes in that manner. More than five and a half million acres were patented under the homestead laws during the last fiscal year. The homestead law passed in 1862 of 1909 and 1910, providing for the is a heritage of the administration disposition of the surface of coal of President Lincoln. There were in- lands under the agricultural land volved in pending entries under its laws and reserving to the government provisions on June 30, 1925, approxi- the coal deposits and the right to mately 30,000,000 acres and prior mine and remove the same. These thereto it had contributed 1,378,884 acts were preceded by extensive with farms for an area of 222,707,947.93 drawals of lands known or believed acres. More than a quarter billion to contain coal. Next came an act acres consecrated to free homes. of 1914 reserving phosphates, niWhat a monument to the immortal trates, oil, gas and asphaltic minerLincoln ! als; and the plan of authorizing exploration for and leasing of reserved mineral deposits was inaugurated by the enactment of the potash law of 1917. The stock-raising homestead law of 1916 reserved all minerals in lands entered thereunder, and the leasing policy became firmly established with the general leasing law of February 25, 1920, having in view the development of lands containing, or believed to contain, deposits of coal, phosphate, sodium, oil, oil shale, or gas. The results effected by this legislation are best illustrated by the fact that under the first five years of its operation, the government has collected in rentals and royalties about $45,000,000, of which $10,000,000 went into the miscellaneous receipts of the government, and the balance was divided between the reclamation fund and the States in which the minerals were produced, as before stated. Grazing Land.-The conflict between settler and stock man is no longer the grave problem it once was, though isolated cases come to light. Free range on the public domain in large areas is a thing of the past, and what there is must be shared by the stock man with the settler. The former, generally speaking, has come to realize that loss of the free range does not mean destruction of stockraising on a large scale, or even injury to the industry; certain allow able controls over grazing tracts by means of title or lease make it possible to improve the range by encouraging the growth of native grasses and cultivating forage crops, which means more and better cattle. Comparison of the number of cattle and sheep, and the quality as evidenced by prices received, raised in States with no free range, such as Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with the Recreation. In addition to its consame statistics relating to any of the tribution to the permanent developfar western States, will furnish con-ment of all that part of the United vincing evidence that the cattle in- States south and west of the terridustry has nothing to fear from the tory embraced by the thirteen origi encroachment of private ownership or nal colonies by placing settlers a definite government control of the thereon, the General Land Office has public grazing lands. played its part in the preservation of Legislation is now pending before the beauty spots and natural wonders Congress under which, if enacted, the of the public domain now available Secretary of the Interior will be au- for the recreation and education of thorized to classify the grazing lands the people. Many of these have been within the public domain and lease reserved and developed as a result of them under such regulations and in information furnished by its field insuch bodies as will insure the preser-vestigating force, and as the first advation of the pasturage or forage ministrator of the forest reserve act, values, with due protection to the it created an important nucleus for settler and provision for the develop- the present vast national forest sysment of such mineral deposits as may tem. be found. Outdoors. In connection with its Mineral Lands.-The government's other activities along the lines herein policy of controlling natural re- briefly reviewed, the General Land OfSources within its public lands had fice is coöperating with the Presiits beginning with acts of Congress dent's Committee on Outdoor Recrea cured by its surveyors and field inspectors and instructed them to make special effort to obtain and present in concise form data relating to areas suitable for recreational purposes. Although the undertaking is in pre tion in furtherance of the plan for developing Federal policies of land use in which recreation will have its proper place. The value of outdoor recreation is too obvious to require supporting comment, yet it has never been reflected in any active govern-iiminary form as yet and legislation mental participation, other than mili- must be formulated for the proper tary preparedness. The President's control and administration of lands plan will have not only the educa- reserved and dedicated to this purtional aspect of attracting the atten- pose, some important definite steps tion of the public to the benefits of have been taken. A number of areas outdoor life, aided by the fact of have been withdrawn from disposihis interest in the matter; it will tion under the public land laws and also result in adding materially to many others are under consideration, the opportunities for indulging there- each possessing some special feature in. Recreational areas must be pro- in harmony with the purpose in view. vided, and they must have such One tract contains a cave of more scenic, scientific, or other interest- than local interest; another has on ing attributes as will make them at-it prehistoric ruins; others are either tractive. The plan will no doubt ex- on lakes or streams, affording fishing, pand so as to bring about the estab- bathing and boating, or suitable for lishment of such areas in all States camping facilities along public highwhether or not they contain public ways. The plan should enlist public lands. The first steps in its inception interest and participation, since inhave naturally turned to the public dulgence in reasonable recreation domain. The General Land Office has takes its place as one of the modern made available the information se-rules of health. RECLAMATION AND IRRIGATION BUREAU OF RECLAMATION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR DIFFICULTIES Defects of Irrigation.-Since the close of the World War, conditions affecting irrigation have become quite different from what they were before that date. Irrigation engineering, as such, has been little changed, but the economic value of irrigation works is decidedly different. Engineering works theoretically perfect may be worse than useless because what they accomplish is not worth the cost involved. Such a condition may be remedied by better use of the works in some cases; in other cases, there is no way of meeting the high costs, and failure results. The outstanding lesson of irrigation in the United States in 1925 is that while a large amount of sound engineering and construction has been done on public irrigation enterprises, it has often not been successful be cause, in the main, good engineering laws, and what legislation is neces- living on the irrigated farms of the sary in order to salvage whatever of Reclamation Service, and 337,000 in good there is in these irrigation the towns on these projects. Some projects. of these persons are doing well and many more are gradually working up to that condition. In Nevada, according to Dr. Mead, the State would be in a critical condition, with a population of only 70,000, without the Newlands-project farms which furnish winter feed for range stock. The irrigation farmers of Texas, Arizona and California are now the main source of long-staple cotton. These and other good things that might be mentioned are the result of good farming, however; and one of the defects of the government's policy on irrigation matters has been its lack of attention to the ability of settlers on its projects to develop into good farmers. Irrigation farming has all the difficulties of ordinary farming plus others peculiar to itself. An irriga tion farmer cannot be so independent as a farmer in Connecticut or Iowa. He must cooperate with his neighbors in irrigating when his turn to take water comes. He must level his fields to take water. He must choose his crops not only with regard to soil, climate and markets, but also with a keen eye on their response to water. He must be a better than average farmer to win success. Many persons who should never have tried to become farmers on irrigated land have done so, particularly on federal projects; and their lack of success caused many protests from them in 1925. For it is usually the case that where money is owed to the United States protests against paying it are more numerous than is the case with debts to other creditors. Settlers Reclamation Farmers. cannot move on to irrigated farms and develop them as did the settlers in the prairie states, where a paying crop could be raised the first year. It often costs as much as $75 to $100 Repayment System.-The reclama- per acre to prepare an irrigated farm tion act of 1902 established a fund to-day for taking water. The cost made up of the proceeds from sales of the irrigating works adds from of public land, to which a later act $30 to $100 more; Dr. Mead estiadded half of the proceeds from min- mates that it will be $158 an acre eral leases. This fund has been used on the Columbia Basin project in to build the irrigation works and Washington. Operating charges should into it was to be paid a sum suffi- be paid. Fences are needed to keep cient to recoup the cost of the works out range cattle, and a house for from repayments by the users of the the farmer's family and a shelter water, made in annual installments for his work team must be built. Dr. during twenty years. No interest is charged on the deferred payments, but the operating expenses are assumed to be met promptly and entirely by the users. In short, the settlers really pay 5 per cent. interest on the cost of the works for twenty years, and the government then gives them the works. No other government is so generous to irrigationists. Yet to date, on only one project has even half the construction costs been paid; on some projects none of the construction costs has been paid and a large part of the operating costs is in arrears. Good Results. In spite of this unexpected weakness, there are some good things to report. One hundred and forty-three thousand persons are Mead estimates that, at present prices, it costs from $5,000 to $7,000 to improve an 80-acre farm on the average irrigation project, before the first crop is raised; and that in some projects several years of careful irrigation are needed to bring the land to its best condition. Farmers who have the necessary amount of money will not go to these projects, as a rule; he believes the best settlers will prove to be those coming with $2,000 to $3,000, provided proper facilities for loaning them money at reasonable rates are made available and they are good farmers at the outset. No land should be taken up by untrained farmers or by speculators unwilling or unable to pay the charges of irrigation. The |