Chapter 47. To accept from the Southern Oregon Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Oregon, a reconveyance of the lands granted to the Stade of Oregon by the Act approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, entitled “An Act granting lands to the State of Oregon to aid in the
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CHAP. 47.— An Act To accept from the Southern Oregon Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Oregon, a reconveyance of the lands granted to the Stade of Oregon by the Act approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, entitled “An Act granting lands to the State of Oregon to aid in the construction of a military wagon road from the navigable waters of Coos Bay to Roseburg, in said State,” commonly known as the Coos Bay Wagon Road grant, to provide for the disposition of said lands, and for other purposes.
February 26, 1919.[[H.R. 8625](/us/bill/65/s/5038).][[Public, No. 280](/us/pl/65/279).] *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, That upon the execution and Coos Bay Wagon Road, grant lands, Oreg.Acceptance of deed for, from Southern Oregon Company.delivery by the Southern Oregon Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Oregon, of a deed satisfactory to the Attorney General of the United States, reconveying to the United States all the right, title, and interests of the said Southern Oregon Company in and to the lands situated in the counties of Coos and Douglas, in the State of Oregon, and embraced within the limits of the grant made by the United States to the State of Oregon by the Act of March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, entitled “An Act granting lands to the State of Oregon to aid in the construction of a military wagon road from the navigable waters of Coos Bay to Roseburg, in said State,” commonly known as the Coos Bay Wagon Road grant, and now involved in litigation pending in the Supreme 1180Court of the United States under the style and title “The Southern Oregon Company against the United States,” the said lands shall Payment.again become a part of the public domain, and the United States shall pay to the Southern Oregon Company the sum of $232,463.07.
Pending suit dismissed when deed executed.The execution and delivery of the aforesaid deed within thirty days from and after the approval of this Act shall constitute the acceptance of this Act by the said Southern Oregon Company; and upon the approval of such deed by the Attorney General of the United States the aforesaid suit shall be dismissed and all matters of difference, controversy, and litigation between the United States and the said Southern Oregon Company arising out of said land grant shall be *Proviso*.Timber recoveries not affected.deemed fully settled, adjusted and terminated: *Provided*, That nothing herein shall be construed to prevent the United States from instituting and maintaining such suits or actions as may be necessary to recover the value of timber or other material heretofore cut or removed from any of said lands without the consent of the Southern Oregon Company.
Sec. 2. Appropriation for unpaid taxes and land conveyed.That the taxes accrued, unpaid, and delinquent on the said lands on the date of the delivery of the deed provided for in the preceding section shall be paid by the Treasurer of the United States upon the order of the Secretary of the Interior as soon as may be after this Act becomes effective, and a sum sufficient to make such payment and also to provide for the payment of the said sum of $232,463.07, as provided for in section one of this Act, is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Sec. 3. Classification and disposal of lands.Vol. 39, p. 218.That the said lands shall be classified and disposed of in the manner provided by the Act of June ninth, nineteen hundred and sixteen (Thirty-ninth Statutes at Large, page two hundred and eighteen), for the classification and disposition of the Oregon and *Provisos*.Preference to lessees from Company.California railroad grant lands: *Provided*, That such persons who, being citizens of the United States, have continuously leased from the said Southern Oregon Company for a period of not less than ten years, or who under lease from said company have cultivated and placed valuable improvements upon any of said lands classified as agricultural, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres to each person, shall be allowed a preference right of six months in which to purchase such lands from the United States by paying therefor the sum of $2.50 per acre and reimbursing the United States for the Adverse claimants to lessees residing on lands, etc.taxes paid on such land: *Provided further*, That where any of such leased lands have been resided upon, to the same extent and in the same manner as is required under the homestead laws, since the first day of December, nineteen hundred and thirteen, by any person duly qualified to enter such lands claiming adversely to such lessee, and who has improved the land and devoted some portion thereof to agricultural use, and who shall have maintained his residence to the date of his application, the claim of such settler and resident shall be superior to that of the lessee, and he shall be allowed the preference right of entry afforded actual settlers by section five of the Act of June ninth, nineteen hundred and sixteen, aforesaid.
Sec. 4. Title to money now in court.That the title to all money arising out of said lands and now on deposit to await the final outcome of said suit now pending in the Supreme Court, as aforesaid, is hereby vested in the United States, and the United States is subrogated to all the rights and remedies of the obligee or obligees, and especially of Harry E. Laughlin as commissioner, under any contract for the purchase of timber on said lands. Sec. 5. Receipts from land and timber to constitute a special fund.That all moneys received from or on account of said lands and timber and the timber thereon under the provisions of this Act shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States in a separate 1181fund to be designated “The Coos Bay Wagon Road grant fund,” which fund shall be disposed of in the following manner:
A separate Disposal of.account shall be kept in the General Land Oilice of the sales of said lands and timber within each of the two counties of Coos and Douglas, To Coos and Douglas Counties.and after the proceeds from such sales amount to a sum equal to that applied to pay the accrued taxes in that county and a sum equal to $2.50 per acre for each acre of such land therein title to which is revested in the United States pursuant to the provisions of this Act, twenty-five per centum of all other moneys received from said lands shall be paid to the treasurer of the county in which the lands sold are situated for common schools, roads, highways, bridges, and port districts, to be apportioned by the county courts for the several purposes above mentioned: and the remainder shall become a part To United States Treasury.of the general fund in the Treasury of the United States.
The payments herein authorized shall be made by the Treasurer of the United States upon the order of the Secretary of the Interior, as the fund accumulates in the Treasury: *Provided*, That none of the payments to *Proviso*.Subject to prior payments.the counties provided for in this section shall be made until the Treasury has been reimbursed in the amount paid to the Southern Oregon Company and also for all taxes paid pursuant to the provisions of section two of this Act. Sec. 6.
That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to Regulations, etc.perform any and all acts and to make such rules and regulations as may be necessary and proper for the purpose of carrying the provisions of this Act into full force and effect: and any person, applicant, Punishment for false swearing.purchaser, entryman, or witness who shall swear falsely in any affidavit or proceeding required hereunder or under the regulations issued by the Secretary of the Interior shall be guilty of perjury and liable to the penalties prescribed therefor.
Sec. 7. That the sum of $12,000 be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, Appropriation for classification.out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to enable the Secretary of the Interior, in cooperation with the Secretary of Agriculture, or otherwise, to complete the classification of the lands as herein provided, which amount shall be immediately available and shall remain available until such classification shall have been completed. Sec. 8. That this Act shall become effective upon its acceptance In effect when accepted by Southern Oregon Company.by the Southern Oregon Company, in the manner provided by the first section hereof.
Approved, February 26, 1919.