GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 8, 1896.

To the Senate: 

I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State, in answer to the resolution of the Senate of May 9, 1896, directing that “the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Postmaster-General, and the Attorney-General cause a careful and thorough inquiry to be made regarding the number of aliens employed in their respective Departments, and to communicate the result of said inquiry to the Senate at the earliest practicable day.”

GROVER CLEVELAND.

VETO MESSAGES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 28, 1896.

To the House of Representatives: 

I herewith return without my approval House bill No. 2769, entitled “An act to authorize the leasing of lands for educational purposes in Arizona.”

This bill provides for the leasing of all the public lands reserved to the Territory of Arizona for the benefit of its universities and schools, “under such laws and regulations as may be hereafter prescribed by the legislature of said Territory.”

If the proposed legislation granted no further authority than this, it would, in terms at least, recognize the safety and propriety of leaving the desirability of leasing these lands and the limitations and safeguards regulating such leasing to be determined by the local legislature chosen by the people to make their laws and protect their interests.

Instead of stopping here, however, the bill further provides that until such legislative action the governor, the secretary of the Territory, and the superintendent of public instruction shall constitute a board for the leasing of said lands under the rules and regulations heretofore prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior.  It is specifically declared that it shall not be necessary to submit said leases to the Secretary of the Interior for approval, and that no leases shall be made for a longer term than five years nor for a term extending beyond the date of the admission of the Territory to statehood.

Under these provisions the lands reserved for university and school purposes, whose value largely depends upon their standing timber, and in which every citizen of the Territory has a deep interest, may be leased and denuded of their timber by officers none of whom have been chosen by the people, and without the sanction of any law or regulation made by their representatives in the local legislature.  Even the measure of protection which would be afforded the citizens of the Territory by a submission to the Secretary of the Interior of the leases proposed, and thus giving him an opportunity to ascertain whether or not they comply with his regulations, is especially withheld.