LEASING OF OIL AND GAS LANDS WITHDRAWN FROM ENTRY. JANUARY 12, 1915.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. CHURCH, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany S. 5434.] The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred Senate bill 5434, which provides for the leasing of certain oil and gas lands withdrawn from entry, after careful consideration of the same, beg leave to report the same to the House with the following amendments, and recommend that said bill as amended do pass. Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the following: That upon relinquishment or surrender to the United States, within six months from the date of this act, by any locator or his successors in interest of his or their claim to any unpatented oil or gas lands included in an order of withdrawal, upon which oil or gas had been discovered, was being produced, or upon which drilling operations were in actual progress January first, nineteen hundred and fourteen, and the claim to which land was initiated prior to July third, nineteen hundred and ten, the Secretary of the Interior may, within his discretion, lease, on such reasonable terms and conditions as he may prescribe, to such locator or his successors, in, interest the said lands so relinquished, not exceeding, however, the maximum area of six hundred and forty acres to any one person, association, or corporation, said leases to be conditioned upon the payment by the lessee of a royalty of not less than oneeighth of the oil or gas extracted or produced from the leased premises or the proceeds thereof, each lease to be for a period of twenty years, with the preferential right in the lessee to renew the same for succeeding periods of ten years, upon such reasonable terms and conditions as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. The bill as thus amended contains nothing more nor less than the -provision found on page 15 of H. R. 16136, being an act to, authorize exploration for and disposition of coal, phosphate, oil, gas, potassium, and sodium, which said provision was heretofore passed by this House by unanimous consent. Owing to the fact that H. R. 16136 is now pending in the Senate, and will probably not be enacted into law during this Congress, and the relief asked for in S. 5434 as amended is strongly an emergency matter which should be immediately granted in order to relieve a situation in the oil fields, the Committee on Public Lands of the House have thought it advisable to urge the speedy passage of S. 5434. O 63D CONGRESS, 3d Session. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. { REPORT No. 1278. TO PLACE BARROW COUNTY, GA., IN EASTERN DIVISION OF NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA. 4 JANUARY 13, 1915.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed. Mr. FLOYD of Arkansas, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 20688.] The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 20688) to place Barrow County, Ga., in the eastern division of the northern district of Georgia, having considered the same, report it to the House with the recommendation that it do pass. The necessity of this legislation has been called to the attention of the Committee on the Judiciary by the Department of Justice in a letter from Mr. Ernest Knaebel, Assistant Attorney General, who attaches the following letter and asks that the appropriate legislation be enacted as therein suggested: The ATTORNEY GENERAL, Washington, D. C. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, OFFICE OF UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, SIR: The counties of Jackson and Walton, in this State, have heretofore been assigned by law to the eastern division of this district. The county of Gwinnett has heretofore, in like manner, been assigned to the northern division. At the recent general election held on the 3d day of November in this State a constitutional amendment was adopted creating the new county of Barrow, which is territory carved in part from each of these three counties. I respectfully recommend that this matter be brought to the attention of the Congress and that the new county of Barrow be assigned to the eastern division of this district. Respectfully, HOOPER ALEXANDER, O OF REPRESENTATIVES. No. 1280. { RESERVATION OF SCHOOL LANDS IN ALASKA. JANUARY 14, 1915.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. LENROOT, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 20851.] The Committee on the Public Lands, to which was referred H. R. 20851, introduced by Mr. Wickersham, begs leave to report the same with the recommendation that the bill do pass. Omitting the formal parts, the bill recommended for passage is as follows: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That when the public lands in the Territory of Alaska are surveyed under direction of the Government of the United States sections rumbered sixteen and thirty-six in each township in said Territory shall be, and the same are hereby, reserved from sale or settlement for the support of common schools in the Territory of Alaska; and section thirty-three in each township in the Tarz.na Valley between parallels sixty-four and sixty-five north latitude and between the one hundred and forty-fifth and the one hundred and fifty-second degrees of west longitude (meridian of Greenwich) shall be, and the same is hereby, reserved from sale or settlement for the support of a Territorial agricultural college and school of mines when established by the Legislature of Alaska upon the tract granted in section two of this act: Provided, That where settlement with a view to homestead entry has been made upon any part of the sections reserved hereby, before the survey thereof in the field, or where the same may have been sold or otherwise appropriated by or under the authority of any act of Congress, or are wanting or fractional in quantity, other lands may be designated and reserved in lieu thereof in the manner provided by the act of Congress of February twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-one (Twentysixth Statutes, page seven hundred and ninety-one): Provided further, That the Territory may, by general law, provide for leasing said land in area not to exceed one section to any one person, association, or corporation for not longer than ten years at any one time: And provided further, That if any of said sections, or any part thereof, shall be of known mineral character at the date of acceptance of survey thereof, the reservation herein made shall not be effective or applicable, but the entire proceeds or income derived by the United States from such sections sixteen and thirty-six and such section thirty-three in each township in the Tanana Valley area herein before described, and the minerals therein, together with the entire proceeds or income dervied from said reserved lands, are hereby appropriated and set apart as separate and permanent funds in the Territorial treasury, to be invested and the income from which shall be expended only for the exclusive use and benefit of the public schools of Alaska or of the agricultural college and school of mines, respectively, in such manner as the Legislature of Alaska may by law direct. SEC. 2. That section numbered six, in township numbered one south of the Fairbanks base line and range numbered one west of the Fairbanks meridian; section numbered thirty-one, in township numbered one north of the Fairbanks base line and range numbered one west of the Fairbanks meridian; section numbered one, in township numbered one south of the Fairbanks base line and range numbered two west of the Fairbanks meridian; and section numbered thirty-six, in township numbered one north of the Fairbanks base line and range numbered two west of the Fairbanks meridian be, and the same are hereby, granted to the Territory of Alaska, but with the express condition that they shall be forever reserved and dedicated to use as a site for an agricultural college and school of mines: Provided, That nothing in this act shall be held to interfere with or destroy any legal claim of any person or corporation to any part of said lands under the homestead or other law for the disposal of the public lands acquired prior to the approval of this act: Provided further, That so much of the said land as is now used by the Government of the United States as an agricultural experiment station may continue to be used for such purpose until abandoned for that use by an order of the President of the United States or by an act of Congress. FULL CONSIDERATION BY COMMITTEE AND DEPARTMENTS. The substance of the bill reported and recommended for passage has been before the Committee on the Public Lands for nearly a year. H. R. 13487, containing generally the provisions of the bill, was introduced by Mr. Wickersham, February 17, 1914, and referred to the committee, and thereafter H. R. 15870, H. R. 17262, and H. R. 20496 were introduced by Mr. Wickersham with intent to present the same general subject more satisfactorily either to himself, to the committee, to the Department of the Interior, or to the Department of Agriculture. The subject matter of the bill has been carefully examined by the Commissioner of the General Land Office and his legal force and by the Secretary of the Interior. The Secretary of the Interior has made two reports on the preceding bills, and the Secretary of Agriculture made one report. A subcommittee of the committee, assisted by one of the legal officers from the Department of the Interior and one from the General Land Office, made the final draft and submitted it to the full Committee on the Public Lands, who requested Mr. Wickersham to introduce the final draft as a new bill; it is this draft which is now favorably reported as H. R. 20851, with the recommendation that it do pass. THE SCOPE OF THE BILL. The first section of the bill provides that when the public lands in Alaska are surveyed by the United States (1) sections 16 and 36 in each township, not known to be mineral at the time of acceptance of survey, shall be reserved from sale or settlement for the support of common schools; (2) section 33 in each township, not known to be mineral at time of acceptance of survey, in the Tanana Valley in the area bounded by the sixty-fourth degree of latitude on the south and the sixty-fifth degree of latitude on the north, and between the one hundred and forty-fifth and one hundred and fifty-second meridians (from Greenwich), shall be reserved from sale or settlement for the support of a Territorial agricultural college and school of mines. Where any of the lands described are found to be occupied by homestead settlers or have been sold or otherwise appropriated according to law at the time of the survey, the bill provides that lieu lands may be selected and reserved to supply the deficiency in the manner provided by the general lieu-land selection act of February 28, 1891. (26 Stat., 791.) Where the lands are surveyed and the reservation provided becomes operative the Territory is authorized to lease the land in area not to exceed one section of 640 acres to any one person, association, or corporation for not longer than 10 years at any one time. If any of the lands mentioned are known mineral lands at the date of the acceptance of the survey, when the reservation would otherwise become effective, the bill provides that the reservation shall not be effective or applicable, but the entire proceeds of the section or sections found to be mineral shall be transferred by the United States to the Territorial treasury for the use either of the common schools or the agricultural college and school of mines, respectively. The bill does not authorize the Territory to expend any part of the principal amount obtained either from leasing or from the proceeds of the lands, but does authorize the use of the income from sections 16 and 36 for the support of common schools in the Territory, and the use of the income of the fund derived from section 33 in the limited area in the Tanana Valley for the support of the agricultural college and school of mines. THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE AND SCHOOL OF MINES. Section 2 of the bill grants to the Territory of Alaska 4 sections of 640 acres each, a total of 2,560 acres, for the purpose of a site for a Territorial agricultural college and school of mines. This grant, however, is subject to the right of the United States to continue to use the tract as an agricultural experiment station until it shall be abandoned for that use by an order of the President or by an act of Congress. There is now an agricultural experiment station maintained upon a portion of these sections by the United States, but the use thereof for that purpose it is thought will aid the agricultural college, since it will afford demonstration in practical work under the most favorable conditions. The agricultural experiment station reservation embraces about one-half of the tract reserved. APPROVED BY SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. On May 2, 1914, the Secretary of Agriculture addressed the following letter to the chairman of the Public Lands Committee in support of one of the earlier bills of this series: Hon. SCOTT FERRIS, House of Representatives. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, MY DEAR MR. FERRIS: I have your note of April 27, with the request that I report on H. R. 15870, particularly as to section 9. I have no comment to make on any part of the bill except on section 9. I think it very proper that the reservation of a site be made for a higher institution of learning in Alaska. Whether such an institution should be organized at the present time and that Federal aid be furnished it is a question on which opinion may well differ. The population of Alaska is only about 70,000, and the number of high-school graduates is very small. In all probability the number would be greater H R-63-3-vol 1-21 |