ment and entry, the price shall be two dollars and fifty cents per acre. One-fifth of the purchase price to be paid in advance, and the balance in five annual installments.

By subsequent legislation the law was amended to provide that the second payment should be paid within two years after entry, and postponing each of the other payments one year. The second payment became due in 1910, in all cases where entry was made in 1908, and owing to drought Congress extended the time of the payment for one year, the same to draw 5 per cent interest.

The payment due in 1910, with 5 per cent interest, will become due this year, and there will also be another payment for those who tiled in 1908, making two payments that will have to be met unless an extension is granted. It is thought to extend these payments for only one year would necessitate further legislation granting another extension next year, as it would be unlikely that the settlers could meet the three payments that would then be due, and it was therefore thought wise to provide that any payment extended may annually thereafter be extended for a period of one year but limiting the time within which all payments must be made to one year after the last payment becomes due. No injustice will be done to the Indians by granting an extension as provided by the bill, for the reason that under existing law the money received from the sale of the lands is deposited in the Treasury to the credit of the Indians and bears 3 per cent interest. If persons take advantage of the privilege of an extension, as herein proposed, they will have to pay 5 per cent interest in advance, which is 2 per cent more than would be received if the money is paid and deposited in the Treasury.

Great drought prevails in portions of South Dakota this year, and many of the settlers affected by this bill will be unable to meet their payments and may lose their homes unless relief is granted, and in the opinion of the committee an emergency exists and the bill as amended ought to be enacted in the present session. The bill has the approval of the department, as will appear by the following letter:

Hon. CHARLES H. BURKE,

House of Representatives.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, August 2, 1911.

SIR: I am in receit of your letter of the 29th ultimo, inclosing a mem randum of a proposed bill for the relief of those who made homestead entry on that part of the Rosebud Indian Reservation opened to set lement under the provisions of the act approved March 2, 1907, entitled "An act to authorize the ale and disposit on of a portion of the surplus or unallotted lands of the Rosebud Indian Reservation, in the State of South Dakota, etc." (34 Stat., 1230).

The memorandum of the proposed bill submitted for my con ideration is as follows:

"That any person who has heretofore made a homestead entry for land in what was formerly a part of the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, authorized by act approved March second, nineteen hundred and seven, may apply to the register and receiver of the land office in the district in which the land is located for an extension of time within which to make payment of any amount that is about to become due, and upon the payment of interest for one year in advance, at five per centum per annum upon the amount due, payment will be extended for a period of one year, and any payment so extended may annually thereafter be extended for a period of one year in the same manner, and on payment of interest annually in advance as aforesaid: Provided, That the last payment and all other payments minst be made within a period not exceeding one year after the last payment is due. That all moneys paid for interest as herein provided shall be deposited in the Treasury to

"SEC. 2. That failure to make any payment that may be due, unless the same be extended, or to make any extended payment at or before the time to which such payment has been extended as herein provided, will forfeit the entry and the same shall be canceled, and any and all payments theretofore made shall be forfeited.

"SEC. 3. That nothing herein contained shall affect any valid adverse claim initiated prior to the passage of this act."

The severity of the drought in the western part of South Dakota and in other sections of the West has been brought to the attention of this department through the agents and officers of the General Land Office, and on July 25 the department submitted a report on S. 3052, Sixty-second Congress, first session, and because of the drought recommended that, with certain proposed amendments, the bill providing for a leave of absence to certain settlers, including those in the Gregory, S. Dak., land district, be enacted into law.

It is believed that the rights of the Indians are amply protected in the proposed bill, and as a failure to enact some measure of relief will probably result in great hardship, I recommend the enactment of the proposed bill.

Very respectfully,

SAMUEL ADAMs, Acting Secretary.

O

62D CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 1st Session.

GRANTING LEAVE OF ABSENCE TO CERTAIN HOMESTEADERS.

AUGUST 3, 1911.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

Mr. TAYLOR of Colorado, from the Committee on the Public Lands, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany S. 3052.]

The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was referred Senate bill 3052, having had the same under consideration, respectfully submit the following report:

That the bill be amended by striking out, after the word "Dakota," page 1, line 6, all of the remainder of lines 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 and the syllable "dence" in line 1, page 2, and insert in lieu thereof the following:

in the Denver, Pueblo, Sterling, Hugo, Lamar, and Glenwood Springs land districts, in the State of Colorado; in the Valentine, O'Neill, Broken Bow, and Alliance land districts, in the State of Nebraska; in the Lawton, Woodward, and Guthrie land districts, in the State of Oklahoma; in the Dickinson, Minot, Williston, and Bismarck land districts, in the State of North Dakota; in th Cheyenne, Evauston, Sundance, Buffalo, and Douglas land districts, in the State of Wyoming; in the Clayton, Fort Sumner, Les Cruces, Tucumcari, Roswell, and Santa Fe land districts, in the Territory of New Mexico; in the Phoenix land district, in the Territory of Arizona; in the former Spokane Indian Reservation, in the State of Washington; and in the Burns, Vale, La Grand, and The Dalles land districts, in the State of Oregon, are hereby relieved from the necessity of residence and cultivation.

And as thus amended the committee recommends that the bill do pass.

While the present law authorizes the granting of leave of absence to homestead settlers in certain cases of severe drought and other exceptional casualties, after the settlers have established their residence upon the land, there is no law that allows the granting of a leave of absence or relief to those homestead entrymen who have not yet been able to establish actual residence. This bill is local in its application and is intended to relieve a very large number of people who have made their homestead filings, but who, owing to the severe drought and almost entire lack of rain in their portion of the country this season, have been unable to establish residence or make improve

ments, or even exist on the land upon which they have filed. This bill merely extends the time within which they may establish their residence until the 15th of April, 1912. The bill does not, however, relieve the homesteader in any way from fully complying with the law as to five years' residence.

From the report of the officials of the Department of the Interior and the personal knowledge of the Representatives in this House from the districts affected, as well as the register and receiver of the land offices in these various districts, it was conclusively shown to your committee that this is a matter of very great urgency; that in some of the districts there has not been 1 inch of rain for many months and that streams and wells have dried up and that it is an actual impossibility for the settlers to maintain residence upon the land; that the bill is not only a necessary and humane measure, and will tend to protect the property rights of a large number of deserving people, but will very greatly aid in the enforcement of the public-land laws and the development of the country. It is further shown that unless the measure can be passed at this extra session of Congress the failure to afford this relief will inevitably cause the utter loss to thousands of settlers of their homes and practically all of their property rights. There seems to be no possible objection or reason why this measure should not be enacted into law.

Your committee recommends the amendment suggested because of the information as to its necessity being obtained by your committee since the passage of the bill by the Senate, and it is not deemed advisable to further amend or encumber the bill than by the additional land districts that are suffering from the drought to such a degree as to warrant this extension.

The suffering of homestead settlers affected by this bill being so conclusively shown and their relief so imperatively necessary, your committee is of the unanimous opinion that an emergency exists, and that this bill should therefore be enacted into law as speedily as possible.