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of the validity of the title to be conveyed to the United States and the conveyance to the United States of such title, shall have the right to proceed with improvements upon the tract to be conveyed by the United States, except upon such portions as are actually required for lighthouse purposes, under conditions to be prescribed by the Secretary of Commerce.

That all expenses incurred by the United States in making the exchange of property herein authorized, including the cost of such abstracts, official certifications and evidences of title as the Attorney General may deem necessary, and all expenses incurred in removing such lighthouse property on the present site as may be advantageous to the interests of the Government, shall be payable from the appropriation, General expenses, Lighthouse Service, for the fiscal years in which such expenses are incurred.

The bill as amended has the approval of the Department of Commerce, as will appear by the letter attached and which is made a part of this report.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE,

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY,
Washington, March 18, 1916.

MY DEAR CONGRESSMAN: Referring to your letter of March 16, 1916, requesting the views of this department on House bill No. 13233 of the present session of Congress, "Authorizing the Secretary of Commerce to exchange lands belonging to the United States at the mouth of Crum River, Pa., for other lands adjacent thereto, for the purpose of removing thereto the Schooner Ledge Range Front Light, so that it may be on the range of the channel of the Delaware River, and further authorizing the Secretary of Commerce to remove said range light from its present location to the property acquired by the exchange," you are respectfully informed that the matter is being investigated and that you will be further advised in regard thereto at an early date.

Very truly, yours,

Hon. Wм. C. ADAMSON,

WILLIAM C. REDFIELD, Secretary.

Chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE,

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY,
Washington, March 25, 1916.

MY DEAR JUDGE ADAMSON: Referring again to your letter of March 16, 1916, requesting the views of this department on House bill No. 13233 of the present session of Congress, authorizing the Secretary of Commerce to exchange lands belonging to the United States at the mouth of Crum River, Pa., etc., I have to advise you that, after carefully considering the matter, this department is of the opinion that the bill should be amended in the interests of the Lighthouse Service, and a draft of bill to supersede the bill inclosed with your letter is transmitted herewith, with recommendation that the bill, as modified, be passed. I wonder whether you will not think, as I am inclined to do upon considering the facts which lie behind this measure, that it should not be made a portion of a general bill to be introduced later, but should be treated as promptly as possible on its separate merits. The reason for this suggestion is that there are facts in this case which seem to me to indicate that this small measure, with which no one disagrees, should go through irrespective of whether a larger measure were delayed or not. It would be too late, I imagine, after the larger bill were introduced, to get the small one through, whereas if the smaller one were introduced first it would have a double chance of passage, both by itself and in connection with the larger one.

The facts are that this exchange of property is quite as important to the interests of the Government as it is to the private interests concerned, and time is of the essence of the contract. The private parties concerned are investing large sums in improvements which are necessarily delayed till this exchange can be made, and the Government interests require that if possible the exchange shall be carried on so that it shall be completed and the new house erected upon the new site before the winter.

HR-64-1-vol 2-25

I defer to your judgment, merely placing the facts before you for such action as you think best. I always feel in a matter of this kind where private parties have treated the Government with entire fairness that we should treat them in such a way as to secure action with the least possible risk of delay and the expense and annoyance to them which such delay necessarily causes.

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PUBLIC-LAND SETTLERS IN NEW MEXICO, ARIZONA, UTAH, COLORADO, NEVADA, AND WYOMING.

APRIL 14, 1916.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. GANDY, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 6430.]

The House Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 6430) to extend the time within which certain publicland settlers in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, and Wyoming, their heirs, grantors, or lawful successors in title or possession, may assert their claims to said land, having had the bill under consideration, recommends the passage of the bill with the following amendment:

In line 6, after the word "and," strike out the word "fifteen " and insert the word "seventeen."

In explanation of this bill it may be said that the public lands within the area covered by the Mexican cessions to this country are on a different basis than public lands anywhere else in this Nation. Article 8 of the treaty of Guadaloupe-Hidalgo, being the "treaty of peace, friendship, limits, and settlement," between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, concluded February 7, 1848, and proclaimed on July 4, 1848, provides as follows:

ART. 8. Mexicans now established in territories previously belonging to Mexico, and which remain for the future within the limits of the United States, as defined by the present treaty, shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexican Republic, retaining the property which they possess in the said territories, or disposing thereof and removing the proceeds wherever they please, without their being subjected on this account to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever.

Those who shall prefer to remain in the said territories may either retain the title and rights of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizens of the United States. But they shall be under the obligation to make their election within one year from the date of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty; and those who shall remain in the said territories after the expiration of that year, without having declared their intention to retain the character of

Mexicans, shall be considered to have elected to become citizens of the United States.

In the said' territories property of every kind now belonging to the Mexicans not established there shall be inviolably respected. The present owners, the heirs of these, and all Mexicans who may hereafter acquire said property by contract shall enjoy with respect to it guaranties equally ample as if the same belonged to citizens of the United States.

Article 5 of the "treaty of boundary, cession of territory, etc." (Gadsden treaty), concluded December 30, 1853, and proclaimed June 30, 1854, between the United States of America and the Republic of Mexico, provided as follows:

All the provisions of the eighth and ninth, sixteenth and seventeenth articles of the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo shall apply to the territory ceded by the Mexican Republic in the first article of the present treaty and to all the rights of persons and property, both civil and ecclesiastical, within the same, as fully and as effectually as if the said articles were herein again recited and set forth.

The titles to land in the territory ceded by Mexico rested upon Spanish and Mexican grants. On July 22, 1854 (10 Stat. L., 309), a method was provided for the investigation of such grants looking to the confirmation of bona fide grants by act of Congress. Less than 100 grants were finally settled under that law in nearly 37 years, and the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. L., 854), established a court of private-land claims to provide for the settlement of private-land claims in that territory. Sections 17 and 18 of that ̄act had to do with small holdings, and are as follows:

SEC. 17. That in case of townships heretofore surveyed in the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, and the States of Colorado, Nevada, and Wyoming, all persons who, or whose ancestors, grantors, or their lawful successors in title or possessions, became citizens of the United States by reason of the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, and who have been in the actual continuous adverse possession and residence thereon of tracts of not to exceed 160 acres each, for 20 years next preceding such survey, shall be entitled, upon making proof of such facts to the satisfaction of the register and receiver of the proper land district, and of the Commissioner of the General Land Office upon such investigation as is provided for in section 16 of this act, to enter without payment of purchase money, fees, or commissions, such legal subdivisions, not exceeding 160 acres, as shall include their said possessions: Provided, however, That no person shall be entitled to enter more than one such tract, in his own right, under the provisions of this section.

SEC. 18. That all claims arising under either of the two next preceding sections of this act shall be filed with the surveyor general of the proper State or Territory within two years next after the passage of this act, and no claim not so filed shall be valid.

And the class of cases provided for in said two next preceding sections shall not be considered or adjudicated by the court created by this act, and no tract of such land shall be subject to entry under the land laws of the United States.

The time granted in section 18 for the asserting of these small holders' rights has been extended on several occasions and it is now proposed to further extend it. There are perhaps a few persons who either through inadvertence, ignorance of the law, negligence, or some other cause have failed to present their proofs before the proper officer designated to take such proof, and it is in behalf of such persons that this bill is recommended. No expenses whatever will be incurred by the passage of the bill, for these claims are adjudicated upon proof submitted and paid for by the claimant by officials of local land offices and by the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

There is appended hereto letter from the honorable Secretary of the Interior regarding this bill:

Hon. SCOTT FERRIS,

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, January 24, 1916.

Chairman Committee on the Public Lands,

House of Representatives.

MY DEAR MR. FERRIS: I am in receipt of your letter of January 8, 1916, inclosing for the views of this department H. R. 6430, Sixty-fourth Congress, first session, proposing to amend section 18 of the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 854), as amended and extended by supplemental legislation.

Sections 16, 17, and 18 of the said act of March 3, 1891, provided for the recognition and filing of a class of claims known as small-holding claims, based on 20 years' possession prior to the survey of the township in which located. Section 18 of said act and its extensions allowed these claimants from March 3, 1891, to March 4, 1901, a period of 10 years within which to file their claims with the surveyor general. The act of February 26, 1909 (35 Stat., 655) further extended the time for filing such claims until March 4, 1910, since which time no such claims could be validly filed.

The bill under consideration proposes to extend the time for filing such claims to March 4, 1917, such bill being otherwise identical in terms with the said act of February 26, 1909. It is noted, however, that the word "fifteen," being the third word in line 6, page 2, of the bill, should be " seventeen." I have no objection to the enactment into law of the bill in question.

Cordially, yours,

FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary.

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