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Show 316 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT New Mexico, as a territory, had previously been given land in 1898: 32,000 acres for buildings, 111,080 for a university, 100,000 for an A & M college, 500,000 for irrigation, 100,000 for dredging the Rio Grande River, 100,000 for normal schools and 400,000 for other state institutions.94 As a result, the total acreage received by New Mexico was 12,794,659 acres or 16 percent of its area while that of Arizona was 10,543,753, or 14 percent of its area. New Mexico and Arizona both became states in 1912. Alaska and Hawaii Many people thought that with all the coterminous territory stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific now divided into states, state-making for the United States was at an end, but they reckoned without the changes World War II brought about, and the new importance Hawaii and Alaska came to have. The admission of both territories became involved in bitter partisan wrangling not unlike that which had long delayed admission of other territories. Also, some were troubled at the influence of allegedly communist-led unions in Hawaii and the questions over fishing rights and restrictions in Alaska. However, these difficulties were sufficiently resolved by 1959 and 1960 when Hawaii and Alaska entered the Union as the 49th and 50th states. In Hawaii there was no unalienated public domain as that term is used in the United States, whereas in Alaska practically all the land was public domain except for what had been set aside as national forests and other reservations. Alaska had been given territorial status in 1912 but had never gained the full powers previously accorded territories. This occasioned dissatisfaction and produced a movement for statehood by 1950. Still, Congress was slow to act and in 1956 the territorial legislature provided for the election of mem- 94 Act of June 21, 1898, 30 Stat. 484. bers of a constitutional convention that met, drafted a constitution which was submitted to a popular vote and carried. Following the earlier Tennessee experience, the people then elected their state officials and sent two "senators" and a "representative" to Washington. Congress failed to act, perhaps not liking this procedure in 1956 any more than it had on a number of earlier occasions when territories had taken matters into their own hands. Meantime, however, the forces opposed to admission, both in Alaska and in Washington, were waning and in 1958 Congress provided the necessary enabling act with the usual disclaimer provision respecting the public lands. At the outset of the movement for statehood for Alaska it was proposed by some that all lands not reserved be given to the proposed state. This was so much more generous than the donations given other states that the proposed amount was later reduced in the enabling act to 102,550,000 acres of public lands and 400,000 acres of national forest land. Instead of defining precisely for what purpose various portions of land were granted, Congress left the right of selection to the state. Place grants such as the school sections given all other states would make little sense in Alaska, given the nature of the vast wasteland, any more than they had in Nevada. Alaska's grant, constituting 28 percent of its area, was well below the 38 percent given Louisiana and the 62 percent given Florida. (It should be remembered that at the time the swamplands were given these and other states, it was thought that they would be more of a liability than an asset.) The new state was also promised the usual 5 percent of the net proceeds derived from land sales though since the state was allowed to select the best lands this was little more than a meaningless carryover from previous measures.95 95 Acts of July 7, 1858 and March 18, 1959, 72 Stat., Part 1, p. 339 and 73 Stat. 5; Ernest Gruening, The State of Alaska (New York, 1954), p. 464. |