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Show -22- Appendix E. Mr. Lane, from the Committee on the Public Lands, to which was referred bill H. R. 4129, by direction of the committee, having considered the same, made the following report: This bill proposes, in consideration of the introduction of a wholesome supply of fresh water into the Colorado desert, to cede to Oliver M. Wozencraft and his associates the said desert tract as described in the bill. This tract embraces about (Lieutenant Bergland makes it) 1,600 square miles in the basin of what is now, and must until an energetic and expensive system of reclamation is inaugurated and brought to successful completion, remain a valueless and horrible desert. The labor of reclamation must be commenced within two years and completed within ten years. As fast as water shall be introduced, upon a report to that effect being made to the Government by a duly appointed commission, patents shall issue for the parts reclaimed; and when all of the conditions of the act are fulfilled, then, and not until then, shall the title vest in the said grantee. The bill contains a provision protecting any persons in their existing rights under the laws of the United States, whether acquired under the pre-emption laws or by grants of any character under the laws of the United States. The apparent novelty of the proposition is not so great as at first view it seems. It has been established to be outside of the policy, if not clearly beyond the Constitutional competency of the Government to undertake the initiation and direction of works of internal improvement, as one so vast and at the same time so speculative as are contemplated by this bill. The principle is the same that has stood the test of wise and approved statesmanship in granting the States the swamp and overflowed lands within their boundaries. |
