Items of Interest December 20, 1913 Issue

Items of Interest

The first good roads bill to be introduced in the House of Representatives is that which has just been presented by Chairman Shackleford, chairman of the roads committee. His measure has been carefully worked out, and is the result of years of study on the subject of federal aid to good roads. The whole purpose of the bill is to set a federal policy of encouragement of road construction. When communities go to great expense in the construction of roads, the government financial aid for the maintenance of these roads is correspondingly high. But on the other hand, splendid country roads may be maintained by dragging, and the government has aid for this type which will be of material help in paying for keeping the roads up to specifications. The bill provides for cooperation between states and the federal government in determining the road types and mileage, and in the twenty million dollars it is proposed to appropriate for the first year, each state shares according to its proportion of the total mileage of the country.

Secretary Lane has announced that the total area of public lands withdrawn from general entry, up to the end of November, was a trifle less than sixty-seven million nine hundred thousand acres, of which all but about ten million acres is included in coal withdrawals, and is therefore open to homestead entry, with a reservation of mineral rights to the government. The coal lands, classified and valued, aggregate eighteen million eight hundred and eighty thousand acres, and are valued at seven hundred and sixty-six million dollars. The total classification of lands in western states under existing laws amounted at the end of November to nearly two hundred and ninety-four million acres.

The register of the land office at Juneau, Alaska, decided on Nov. 28 that twenty-one coal claims of the so-called McAlpine group of two hundred on Cook inlet, be held for cancelation because of fraud. The claimants were mostly clerks and stenographers employed by large corporations, who are alleged to have signed powers of attorney and relinquishment when required by their employers to do so. The claims included forty-eight thousand acres of coal lands. The indictment estimates the value of the lands at fifty million dollars.

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