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A BILL FOR THE RELIEF OF SETTLERS WITHIN THE LIMITS
OF THE GRANT TO THE NEW ORLEANS, BATON
ROUGE & VICKSBURG RAILROAD CO.

JANUARY 26 AND 27, 1914

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1914

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RELIEF OF SETTLERS WITHIN LIMITS OF GRANT TO NEW
ORLEANS, BATON ROUGE & VICKSBURG RAILROAD CO.

COMMITTEE ON THE PUBLIC LANDS,

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Monday, January 26, 1914.

The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m., Hon. Scott Ferris (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. We will hear first this morning from Representative Aswell on H. R. 5890. This bill involves a very important matter in the State of Louisiana, and this hearing has been ordered at the request of Representative Aswell, and notices had been sent out by a subcommittee informing the parties in interest that this hearing was to be held and inviting them to attend. We have quite a delegation here to-day to be heard. I do not know what has been agreed upon by the gentlemen interested in regard to the division of time. I do want to say that this bill was originally referred to a subcommittee, of which Congressman Raker is chairman. After Congressman Raker had made some investigation with reference to the importance of it, it seemed to be a matter of such extreme importance that, on his motion, the entire committee was asked to sit with the subcommittee to hear statements with regard to this matter, the entire committee to pass on it, as we believed that method would conserve the time of the gentlemen interested as well as the time of the committee.

Mr. ASWELL. Mr. Chairman, I suggest that the bill itself and the report from the General Land Office be read, in order to get them. before the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. If there is no objection, that will be done. The bill reads as follows:

[H. R. 5890, Sixty-third Congress, first session.]

A BILL For the relief of settlers within the limits of the grant to the New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Vicksburg Railroad Company.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in the administration of the public-land laws of the United States the Secretary of the Interior and all subordinate officers of the Department of the Interior and all courts of the United States shall give full force and effect to the terms and provisions of section two of the act approved February eighth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, entitled "An act to declare a forfeiture of lands granted to the New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Vicksburg Railroad Company, to confirm title to certain lands, and for other purposes," and whenever it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Interior that any lands lying within the limits of the grant made to said New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Vicksburg Railroad Company were occupied by actual settlers at the date of the definite location of the line of said railroad opposite such lands, and that such lands remained in the

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