Page:History of Public School Education in Arizona.djvu/123

Rh These lands may be divided into two clearly defined groups:

I. The public-school lands of which sections 16 and 36 were reserved for the use of schools when the Territory was organized (Feb. 24, 1863) and to which sections 2 and 32 were added at the admission of the Territory as a State. The total area of the four sections in each township thus granted for the use of schools is 8,103,680 acres, of which 3,134,555.20 acres were still unsurveyed December 1, 1914, and 1,397,357.59 acres were included in the national forests.

II. The institutional lands granted by Congress at the admission of the State into the Union, amounting to 2,350,000 acres.

While sections 16 and 36 were reserved in the, for the use of the public schools, no authority to lease, sell, or administer these lands was given the Territorial authorities until the. The correspondence of the governors with the Secretary of the Interior is full of arguments showing the importance and the necessity of granting such authority. Gov. Safford pointed out that squatters were trespassing on and taking up school lands and asked authority to sell or at any rate to lease. His example and requests were followed in turn by practically every succeeding governor with substantially the same reasons, and all were backed up from time to time by the legislature in passing memorials which showed the utmost anxiety to get their hands on this endowment provided for the coming children of the State. In 1883 and 1884, Gov. Tritle urged that the rights of control conceded to the States might well be granted to the Territories and argued truthfully that being deprived of this source of income meant that the citizens must support their schools by direct taxation, and that this was burdensome. He also urged that provision should be made for the selection of other lands to take the place of the worthless desert that covered many parts of the Territory. He renewed these recommendations in 1884 and 1885. Under the administration of Gov. Zulick permission to sell the school lands was again asked. Gov. Wolfley urged that settlers were then farming the school lands and paying no revenue and that the needs of the Territory would never be greater. Gov. Hughes estimated in 1895 that the funds from the school lands, if leased, would be from $75,000 to $100,000 annually, and so the story goes on to the end of the chapter. The Territory very much wished to get control of its school lands, but in this matter the Congress was fortunately adamant. A deaf ear was turned to all their proposals, and