OCR Text |
Show As the table illustrates, public land states have not been uniformly treated in the Federal disposition of land grants. The eleven western states did not receive nearly as large a percentage of their areas as the midwestern and southern states. Even when measured solely by the acreage granted, only Arizona and New Mexico received as much land as states like Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin among others. It should also be noted that, with the possible exception of Minnesota and Oregon, only those states admitted after the Civil War have retained substantial portions of their grant lands. With some exceptions, it can be fairly said then that those earlier states that received the most kept the least of their grant lands. The legislatures of two states, Arizona and Nevada, have adopted resolutions favoring additional grants of land. While plausible arguments have been advanced by them, and conceivably might be made by some other states as well, we are convinced that such requests could not be considered unless Congress were willing to reopen the whole matter of disparities among the 28 other states that have received public land grants. At the time of admission to the Union, each state in effect entered into a compact with the United States setting forth the terms of its admission, and we do not believe that they should be disturbed. Commencing with Ohio, the traditional requirement has been that the new public land states must adopt an "irrevocable ordinance" preliminary to admission to the Union in which they recognize the property rights of the United States in the public lands, and that all Federal property shall be immune from state taxation. In addition, the states have agreed not to tax transferees of Federal lands for a stated period and to tax nonresident ownerships the same as those of residents. In this sense, public land grants to states have not been strictly unilateral bounties, but rather important elements of bilateral compacts. These varied widely according to the circumstances of the times, and Federal land grants were part of the package. In our view, equity does not demand adjustments in these sovereign contracts. Nevada was originally granted sections 16 and 36, totaling 3.9 million acres of land. After some experience indicating that these in-place lands were not of good quality, the state decided that it would rather obtain the privilege of selecting land on a quantity basis instead of the in-place grant. This would permit Comparison of Land Grants to States State Total Area of State Total Acres Granted % of Total Rank in Order Area of % of Area Granted Granted 27.9 7 64.3 1 30.6 5 16.4 12 32.6 4 34.7 3 36.2 2 14.5 15 28.3 6 8.7 19 22.4 8 14.8 14 13.7 17 16.6 11 11.2 18 19.3 9 6.6 24 15.9 13 14.4 16 6.6 24 6.8 23 16.9 10 6.8 23 7.0 21 7.0 21 7.0 21 6.9 22 7.0 21 3.8 25 8.1 20 Alaska 375,296,000 Florida 37,478,400 Minnesota 53,803,520 New Mexico 77,866,240 Michigan 37,258,240 Arkansas 33,986,560 Louisiana 31,054,720 Arizona 72,901,760 Wisconsin 35,938,560 California 101,563,520 Iowa 36,025,600 Kansas 52,648,960 Utah 54,346,240 Missouri 44,599,040 Oregon 62,067,840 Mississippi 30,538,240 Montana 94,168,320 Illinois 36,096,000 Alabama 33,029,760 Colorado 66,718,080 Wyoming 62,664,960 Indiana 23,226,240 Idaho 53,476,480 Nebraska 49,425,280 South Dakota 49,310,080 North Dakota 45,225,600 Oklahoma 44,748,160 Washington 43,642,880 Nevada 70,745,600 Ohio 26,382,080 Total 1,836,232,960 104,568,280 24,118,000 16,422,051 12,789,916 12,142,846 11,786,834 11,231,032 10,543,753 10,179,804 8,825,106 8,061,262 7,790,747 7,464,497 7,417,022 6,959,405 5,887,064 5,871,058 5,754,655 4,766,883 4,433,898 4,139,209 3,916,334 3,639,554 3,458,711 3,435,373 3,163,551 3,095,706 3,044,471 2,723,647 2,128,862 319,759,585 17.1 244 |