THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



249 



tions would be given as to how the priority of right between 

 such conflicting claimants should be established. 



Said telegraphic instructions were supplemented on Feb- 

 ruary 24, 1910, by detailed directions as to the means whereby 

 parties filing conflicting applications might, if possible, agree 

 among themselves as to which one of them should make entry, 

 and, in case of failure to agree, the choice would be determined 

 by lot. 



The Yuma project embraces only 174 farm units; 2,800 

 applicants, or about 17 for each unit, received identification 

 cards at the Shrine Auditorium on March first, and, before 

 the close of business on March 19th, 1,727 applications, or 

 about 10 for each tract, were formally tendered. 



Under the plan adopted by the Interior Department on 

 February 19th, all rush and scrambling, and the public 

 confusion and disorder necessarily incident thereto, were 

 avoided ; the weak were placed on an eqaul footing with 

 the strong, tedious and unnecessary waiting was eliminated, 

 and each of the applicants afforded an equal chance of 

 securing a tract. The course pursued in this instance is in 

 conformity with that adopted on previous occasions when 

 large numbers of people congregated with a view to making 

 entry of public lands, and, as heretofore indicated, is the result 

 of experience involving grave disorders, contentions and con- 

 troversies naturally incident to strife for precedence in oppor- 

 tunity to acquire what is considered valuable property. 



For further information, we reproduce copies of the public 

 notice of January 12, 1910 (which relates to matter in hand), 

 of the Secretary's telegram of February 19th and of his in- 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. 



WASHINGTON, D. C., January 12, 1910. 



Public Notice. 



Pursuant to the provisions of Section 4 of the Reclama- 

 tion Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat., 388), notice is hereby 

 given as follows: 



1. Water will be furnished from the Yuma project, Cali- 

 fornia, under the provisions of the Reclamation Act in the 

 irrigation season of 1910, for the irrigible lands shown on 

 farm unit plats of Ts. 15 and 16 S., R 23 E S B M 

 approved December 13, 1909, by the Secretary of the Interior' 

 and on file in the local land office at Los Angeles, California] 

 and the lands will be opened to entry and settlement in 

 accordance herewith. 



2. Warning is hereby given that no person will be per- 

 mitted to gain or exercise any rights whatever under any 

 settlement or occupation begun prior to March 1 1910 on any 

 land covered by this notice, and all such settlement or occu- 

 pation is hereby forbidden. 



3. Homestead entries accompanied by applications for 

 water rights and the first instalment of the charges may be 

 made at the local land office in Los Angeles. California on and 

 after March 1. 1910, beginning at 9 o'lock a. m., under the 

 provisions of said act, and the act of April 21. 1904 (33 Stat 



. for the farm units shown on said plats. Water-right 

 applications may also be made for lands in private owner- 

 ship and the time when payments will be due therefore is 

 hereinafter stated. 



4. The limit of area per entry, representing the acreage 

 vhich in the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior may be 



reasonably required for the support of a family on the lands 

 entered subject to the provisions of the Reclamation Act is 

 fixed at the amounts shown on the plats for the several farm 

 units. 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 

 WASHINGTON. 



February 19, 1910. 

 TELEGRAM. 

 Register and Receiver, 



Los Angeles, California. 



Disregard line and numbers assigned by police. Secure 

 Shrine auditorium, or some other suitable building, for March 

 one and open its doors at eight A. M., for admission of Yuma 

 applicants. Close and lock doors promptly at nine A M 

 and take name, address, aee, height, weight,' and signature of 

 all applicants then in auditorium, and later and before close 

 business on March tenth, nineteen ten, receive and sus- 

 pend their applications. Where two or more apply for same 

 tract, such applications are to be considered and disposed df 

 s simultaneous and directions will be given by mail for de- 

 ermlning priority of right between conflicting applicants. 

 31ve all possible publicity to this order. 



Ballinger. 



Secretary. 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 

 WASHINGTON. 



February 24, 1910. 

 Register and Receiver, 



Los Angeles, California. 

 Sirs: 



Paragraph 2 of the public notice dated Ja'nuary 12, 1910, 

 heretofore given, of the opening of the lands within the Yuma 

 Irrigation project, which become subject to entry at your 

 office on March 1, 1910. is hereby amended to read as fol- 

 lows: 



"No person will be permitted to gain or exercise 

 any rights whatever under any settlement or occu- 

 pation begun prior to April 1. 1910, and all such set- 

 tlement or occupation is hereby forbidden." 



For the purpose of assuring the orderly opening and equit- 

 able distribution of said lands, you are here directed and 

 authorized to secure for use on that day an auditorium, or 

 other suitable building or a suitable and adequate enclosure 

 within which prospective applicants for these lands will be 

 permitted to assemble prior to nine o'clock, A. M., on March 

 1, 1910, but no applicant will be permitted to enter the audi- 

 torium, building, or enclosure secured for that purpose, after 

 that hour. 



When the assemblage of applicants has been thus formed 

 and segregated, you will place guards to prevent other persons 

 from joining the assemblage after nine o'clock, and at once 

 distribute to each of the assembled applicants a card printed 

 with blank spaces suitable for the signature, postofflce ad- 

 dress, age, height, and weight of the applicants: and, when 

 these cards have been filled out by or for the applicants, and 

 signed by them, they will thereafter be returned to you by 

 the applicants before the assemblage disperses, and be later 

 used by you as a basis and means of identification when appli- 

 cations to enter are presented. 



All qualified persons who thus present cards will be per- 

 mitted to file their applications to enter at your office at any 

 time between nine o'clock, A. M., and four thirty o'clock, 

 F. M., of each day, Sundavs excepted, up to and including 

 March 9. 1910; and all applications thus filed will be con- 

 sidered and treated as filed on March 1, 1910, at nine o'clock, 

 A. M., and will be suspended by you until March 10, 1910, 

 when you will proceed to take early and appropriate action 

 thereon in the following manner: 



You will first carefully examine all applications so filed 

 and suspended, and assemble the applications of all persons 

 who have applied to enter the same farm unit, into one 

 group, and consider them as having been simultaneously pre- 

 sented. Notices will then be at once given to all qualified 

 applicants in each of the groups thus formed, by mailing 

 such notice to each applicant directed to the address given 

 in his application, notifying them of a named hour on a speci- 

 fied date when they will be permitted to appear at your office 

 for the purpose of mutually determining among themselves 

 the method by which one of them will be awarded the right to 

 enter the tract which they have all applied for, and if they fail 

 to mutually agree on such a method you will award the right 

 of entry to one of them In the following manner: The name 

 of each qualified applicant for the same tract who appears 

 at your office at the hour named, either in person or by s 

 duly appointed agent, will be written on a separate small 

 card, and each of these cards will be then placed in a separ- 

 ate sealed envelope which bears no distinctive marks and 

 which is the same size and color of the envelopes in which 

 the other cards are similarly placed. The envelopes thus con- 

 taining the names of all qualified applicants for the same 

 tract, who appear under the notice, will then be placed in a 

 receptacle, and, after they have been thoroughly mixed, some 

 person selected by the applicants for that purpose, or by you, 

 if the applicants fail to make a selection, will then draw one 

 of the envelopes from the receptacle in such a manner as t 

 prevent him from seeing any of the envelopes at the time 

 he makes the drawintr, and the qualified person whose name 

 is contained in the envelope thus drawn will be awarded the 

 right to make entry of the tract for which all the applicants 

 t'ave applied, and the applications of the remaining applicants 

 for the same tract will stand finally rejected. The applicants 

 who fail to appear either in person or by agent at the hour 

 named in the notice will thereby forfeit all rights under their 

 applications. 



Persons who present cards as above specified will not be 

 required to present applications for water rights, or to make 

 the necessary payments at the time they file their applications 

 to enter: but in all cases where you find that any qualified per- 

 son is the only applicant for the farm unit covered by his 

 application, and in all cases where a qualified applicant has 

 been awarded the right to enter a farm unit for which there 

 were other applicants, you will notify such applicants entitled 

 to make entry that the right of entry will be denied them and 

 t^eir applications rejected if they fail to file the necessary 

 water right applications and make the necessary pay- 

 ments within ten days after the date of such notice, and 

 in all cases where such applications are not so presented and 

 the required payments are not made within that time you 

 will reject the applications to enter and permit the lands 

 covered thereby to be entered by the first qualified person 

 who applies therefor. 



All applications to enter said lands presented otherwise 

 than as hereinabove specified shall be by you supended 

 find be proceeded with in regular oredr after the applications 

 1 creinberfore orovided for are disposed of. 



Up to and including March 9, 1910. you will keep plats 

 of all farm units subject to entry, publicly exhibited in your 

 office: and. as soon as any application to enter has been filed, 

 you will place a check mark or other distinguishing mark 

 on the plat of the unit embraced in such application, for the 

 mirpose of enabling subseauent applicants to readily ascer- 

 tain what units have been already applied for and the number 

 of applicants for any specified unit. 



Former soldiers and sailors may file declaratory state- 

 ments for these lands as in the case of other public lands 

 siibiect to homestead entry, provided, however, that In no pro- 

 ceeding provided for herein shall any person act as agent fo'r 

 more than one soldier or sailor seeking right of entry to any 

 of sa'd lands; but. when declaratory statements are filed by 

 persons who present cards on March 1, 1910, as herein pre- 

 scribed, such declaratory statements will be suspended and 

 thereafter treated in the manner herein provided for the treat- 

 ment of applications to enter, but no declaratory statement 

 ni"-*t be finally accepted until the necessary water right appli- 

 cation has been presented and the required payments have 

 been made. Very respectfully, 



R. A. Ballinger, 



Secretary. 



