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Show 227 tion and to expedite the breaking up of excess lands on new projects.450 Congress dealt affirmatively with this problem by two provi- sions in a 1914 statute. One imposed a penalty of a 5% increase in construction charges for each year's delay in making a water- right application for privately owned land.451 The second pro- vision required:452 That before any contract is let or work begun for the construction of any reclamation project hereafter adopted the Secretary of the Interior shall require the owners of private lands thereunder to agree to dispose of all lands in excess of the area which he shall deem sufficient for the support of a family upon the land in question, upon such terms and at not to exceed such price as the Secretary of the Interior may designate; and if any landowner shall refuse to agree to the re- quirements fixed by the Secretary of the Interior, his land shall not be included within the project if adopted for construction. In the administration of this latter provision, owners were required to convey their excess land to a trustee who, in turn, was to convey to a third person at a price not in excess of that fixed by the Secretary.453 Administrative provision was also made for a forced sale within a fixed period after issuance of public notice.454 But an evident weakness in this device lay in the failure of the trust deed to provide for control of sales by purchasers from middlemen, who were free to sell without restriction.455 ™Id. pp. 202-203. 451 Act of August 13, 1914, § 9, 38 Stat. 686, 689, 43 U. S. C. 464. 462 § 12; 38 Stat. 689, 43 U. S. 0. 418. "If this provision shall be adopted speculation in lands under reclamation projects will be reduced to a mini- mum and the burdens of the real farmer who undertakes to reclaim and cultivate the lands, and for whose benefit the reclamation law was enacted primarily, can be kept normal." H. Rep. No. 505, 63d Gong., 2d sess., p. 2 (1914). 458 Landownership Sxibvet on Federal Reclamation Projects, Depart- ment of the Interior, p. 42 (1946), 484 Ibid. ^Jbid. |