86 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



RULING CONCERNING SOLDIERS HOMESTEAD RIGHTS 



A very important administrative ruling, con- 

 struing the law relating to soldiers' additional home- 

 stead rights, was made by Secretary of the Interior 

 Lane on February 15, 1917. 



Prior to 1872, while a qualified person had the 

 right to enter 160 acres pn a homestead, an entry 

 of less than that acreage exhausted his right. Out 

 of gratitude to the soldier of the civil war Congress 

 passed an act authorizing a soldier whose service 

 had amounted to 90 days and who had been honor- 

 ably discharged, 

 etc., to make an 

 additional entry 

 of land such as 

 when added to 

 the quantity al- 

 ready entered by 

 him (prior to 

 June 22, 1874, 

 when the Re- 

 vised Statutes 

 went into effect) 

 would not exceed 

 160 acres. In 

 other words, if 

 he had already 

 entered 80 acres, 

 he had an addi- 

 tional right to 

 enter another 80 

 acres. Until 1896, 

 the Land De- 

 partment con- 

 strued this as 

 meaning a whol- 

 ly personal and 

 unassigna- 

 ble right. 



Another section of the Revised Statutes pro- 

 vided that in case of the death of the soldier, "his 

 widow, if unmarried, or in case of her death or mar- 

 riage, then his minor orphan children, by a guar- 

 dian duly appointed and officially accredited at the 

 Department of the Interior," should be entitled to 

 the benefits included in the chapter, which has been 

 construed as including the soldier's additional right. 



In 1896, the Supreme Court held that the bene- 

 ficiary of this additional right need not personally 

 enter the land, but might assign the right to another, 

 if he did not elect to acquire more land, thus indi- 

 rectly getting the personal benefit intended by Con- 

 gress. 



After this decision, much confusion arose, and 

 exceeding the requirements of the decision, the 

 Department admitted assignments not made by the 

 soldier, the widow, or the guardian of the minor 

 children, but by heirs of any of them, or by admin- 

 istrators. 



The result was to create put of these wholly 

 personal rights a sort of "scrip" which has been 

 bought for a song and sold by speculators at im- 

 mense profits. In its evolution, it has produced all 

 sorts of unconscionable claims and has cost the 



CONCRETE IN IRRIGATION CANAL CONSTRUCTION 



One of the Earliest Uses of Concrete Lining for Irrigation Canals. This View Shows What 

 Is Known as the Upper Canal of the Riverside Water Company, California. 



Government thousands of acres of land, benefiting 

 only persons whom Congress had never mentioned 

 in this legislation. Dealers in these rights, when 

 unable to find any heirs of a soldier, have even se- 

 cured letters of administration on the estate of a 

 soldier on the theory that the additional right was 

 an asset of his estate by escheating, in the absence 

 of heirs, to the state in which the soldier was domi- 

 ciled at the time of his death. An 80 acre right 

 would be purchased by the speculator, in this 



manner, for a 

 trivial sum, and 

 would be sold 

 by him for $800 

 or more. The 

 appropriation of 

 the public do- 

 main by such 

 means has ac- 

 quired the pro- 

 portions of a 

 scandal. 



This, by his 

 ruling of Febru- 

 ary 15, 1917, Sec- 

 retary Lane has 

 stopped. He 

 rules that Con- 

 gress merely in- 

 tended to benefit 

 the parties de- 

 scribed in the 

 law the soldier, 

 h i s dependent 

 widow, or his de- 

 pendent children 

 that is, his 

 minor orphan 



children ; that it was never intended that the right 

 should descend to heirs generally, near or remote ; 

 much less by escheat to a state. He rules that 

 unless the rgiht be exercised by personal use or 

 assignment in the lifetime of the soldier, it passes 

 to the window similarly to be used during her 

 widowhood, or if she dies or remarries, then to the 

 minor children to be appropriated by their guardian 

 during their minority. If not so used by any of 

 these, then the right ceases and determines and 

 never becomes the asset of anyone's stat. 



The commissioner of the general land office is 

 directed that "no soldiers' additional right assigned by the 

 heirs generally or by the administrator of the estate of a 

 deceased soldier, or his widow, or of his minor orphan 

 children, or directly by such 'minor children' after they 

 shall have reached majority, thus assigned after the date 

 hereof, will be recognized as the valid basis of entry of 

 public lands." 



But the secretary says that he is mindful that many 

 persons may have heretofore acquired such additional 

 rights in good faith, on the strength of a practice that is 

 not in harmony with his new ruling, and for that reason 

 he directs that his ruling shall not be given any retroactive 

 effect where the additional right was actually sold and 

 the transaction was wholly completed and formally con- 

 summated by actual delivery of the written assignment 

 prior to February 15, 1917. 



