67TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 1st Session. EXECUTION OF PENSION PAPERS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. MAY 3, 1921.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed. Mr. KNUTSON, from the Committee on Pensions, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 5585.] The Committee on Pensions having had under consideration the bill (H. R. 5585) relating to the execution of pension papers in foreign countries, beg leave to report the same with the recommendation that it do pass. The necessity for the legislation is apparent, and is fully explained to the chairman of the committee by the honorable Secretary of the Interior in the following letter: Hon. HAROLD KNUTSON, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Chairman Committee on Pensions, House of Representatives. MY DEAR MR. KNUTSON: I have the honor to invite your attention to a situation growing out of the recent war which appears to warrant legislation and to that end am submitting for your consideration draft of a proposed bill. Section 2 of the act of July 26, 1892 (27 Stat., 272), having relation to the execution of declarations and other papers in pension claims, provides: "That the Commissioner of Pensions may accept declarations and other papers of claimants residing in foreign countries made before a United States minister or consul or other consular officer, or before some officer of the country duly authorized to administer oaths for general purposes, and whose official character and signature shall be duly authenticated by the certificate of a United States minister or consul or other consular officer." It appears that in recent years there have been filed with the Commissioner of Pensions a great many documents prepared in Germany which can not under the above provision of law be accepted as properly executed. When such papers are sworn to before an officer duly authorized to administer oaths for general purposes there is at present no way in which the officer's official character and signature can be authenticated "by the certificate of a United States minister or consul or other consular off cer." As I am advised, a diplomatic or consular officer of the Spanish Government acting for the United States can not within the meaning of said act be regarded as a United States minister, consul, or consular officer. In consequence of this difficulty the Pension Bureau is delayed in the matter of adjudication of pension claims in which such question is involved. In this connection your attention is invited to the fact that a similar difficulty confronting the Patent Office has been remedied by section 5 of the act of March 3, 1921 (Public, No. 366), as follows: "That all applications for patent filed since August 1, 1914, in which the oath was executed before or authenticated by a consular officer, or other representative qualified to administer oaths, of a Government acting in the interest of the Government of the United States shall have the same force and effect as if said oath had been executed by the applicant before a consular officer of the United States." It is believed that the enactment of similar legislation for the relief of the Pension Bureau would prove of material benefit to all parties in interest and greatly advance the orderly adjudication of all such pending claims. In view thereof it is earnestly hoped that the proposed legislation may be enacted. I have forwarded a similar communication and recommendation to the chairman of the Committee on Pensions, United States Senate. A BILL GRANTING CERTAIN LANDS TO THE CITY OF PHOENIX, ARIZ. MAY 3, 1921.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. HAYDEN, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 2421.] The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred H. R. 2421, granting certain public lands to the city of Phoenix, Ariz., for municipal purposes, having considered the bill, report the same back to the House with the recommendation that the bill do pass without amendment. The city of Phoenix, Ariz., desires to purchase the 160 acres of public land described in the bill and use the same in the disposal of sewage. The surface of the tract is covered with sand and bowlders and has no agricultural value. The President has withdrawn this land from settlement, location, sale, or entry in aid of this legislation and the Secretary of the Interior has recommended the enactment of the bill in the following letter: Hon. N. J. SINNOTT, Chairman Committee on the Public Lands, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, House of Representatives. MY DEAR MR. SINNOTT: April 18, 1921, you transmitted for report H. R. 2421 a bill "Granting certain public lands to the city of Phoenix, Ariz., for municipal purposes." and in response thereto I have the honor to submit the following report: The bill proposes to grant the S. NW. and N. SW. of section 23, T. 1 N., R. 2 E., Gila and Salt River meridian, Arizona, to the city of Phoenix, Ariz., for municipal purposes upon the condition that the said city shall make payment for such land at the rate of $1.25 per acre to the receiver of the United States land office at Phoenix, Ariz., within 60 days after the approval of this act. The S.NW: of said section 23 is subject to the right of way of an irrigation canal under the acts of March 3, 1891, and May 11, 1898, granted to Netta L. McDonald. The map thereof was filed November 5, 1914, and approved November 18, 1914. The President, under authority of the act of Congress approved June 25, 1910 (36 Stat., 847), as amended by the act of August 24, 1912 (37 Stat., 497), upon the recom mendation of this department, withdrew, on January 22, 1921, said lands from settlement, location, sale, and entry, for classification and in aid of legislation, granting said land to the city of Phoenix, Ariz., for municipal purposes, with the further provision that this Executive order (3388) should remain in full force until revoked by the President or by an act of Congress. The land desired for municipal purposes by the city of Phoenix described in this bill appears from the records of the General Land Office to be otherwise unappropriated public land. It appears to be the intention of the bill to grant the land for municipal purposes only, and I have, therefore, to recommend the passage of the bill. Respectfully, The bill reads as follows: ALBERT B. FALL, Secretary. A BILL Granting certain public lands to the city of Phoenix, Ariz., for municipal purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the south half of the northwest quarter and the north half of the southwest quarter of section twenty-three, township one north, range two east, Gila and Salt River meridian, Arizona, be, and the same is hereby, granted to the city of Phoenix, Arizona, for municipal purposes, upon condition that the said city shall make payment for such land at the rate of $1.25 per acre to the receiver of the United States land office at Phoenix, Arizona, within sixty days after the approval of this Act: Provided, That there shall be reserved to the United States all oil, coal, or other mineral deposits found at any time in the land, and the right to prospect for, mine, and remove the same: Provided further, That the grant herein is made subject to any valid existing easements on said land and upon the express condition that_within thirty days of the receipt of any request therefor from the Secretary of the Interior the mayor of said city shall submit to the Secretary of the Interior a report as to the use of the land herein granted during the period named in such request, and that in the event of his failure to so report, or if it is shown in such a report that the terms of this grant have not been complied with, the grant shall be held forfeited, and the Attorney General of the United States shall institute suit in the proper court for the recovery of said lands. HOMESTEAD CREDIT TO WIDOWS. MAY 3, 1921.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. SMITH, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following. REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 70.] The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 70) to allow credit for husbands' military service in case of homestead entries by widows, and for other purposes, having had the same under consideration, report the bill to the House with the following amendments and recommend that the bill as amended do pass. Page 1, lines 5 and 6, strike out the words and figures "(Public Numbered 273)," and insert in lieu thereof the following: "(Fortieth Statutes at Large, page 1161)." Page 1, line 12, change the word "their" to "her." For many years, soldiers and the widows of veterans of the Civil War and the Spanish-American War have had the right to apply, on homestead entry, the period of military service of the husband in lieu of residence, subject to the requirements that in all cases at least one year of residence would be required. On February 25, 1919, Congress passed an act extending the same rights to those engaged in military and naval service in connection with the Mexican border operations or the war with Germany and its allies. The act of February 25, 1919, carried this provision by referring to sections 2304 and 2305 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. The same privileges have belonged to the widows of the Civil War and Spanish War veterans, but the widows' rights were provided for in section 2307. This section was not referred to in the act of February 25, 1919, and it seems that the rights granted to the widows of the Civil and Spanish War veterans should be granted to the widows of the veterans of the recent wars. The measure is recommended by the Secretary of the Interior, and for the information of the House a letter addressed by the Secretary of the Interior to the Hon. N. J. Sinnott, chairman of the Committee on the Public Lands, is attached heretc. H R-67-1-vol 1-13 |